Thirty-one high schools brought 278 wrestlers to Scotts Valley High over the weekend for the annual Coast Classic Wrestling Tournament.
Wrestlers from Oregon down to King City, Calif., found their way to the gym at Scotts Valley to test their mettle against each other in one of the Central Coast Section’s most prestigious annual tournaments.
Eight local teams participated in the two-day contest, Saturday, Dec. 17, and Sunday, Dec. 18. Wrestlers from San Lorenzo Valley, Soquel, Scotts Valley, Harbor, Aptos, Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Pajaro Valley high schools made up just over a quarter of the field amid dozens of other schools.
One valley wrestler, senior Logan Kellogg of SLV, won his weight class (189 pounds). Kellogg was ranked fifth in the state and first in the section before the start of the tournament and methodically downed all five of his challengers during the two days. Kellogg won the final match by major decision over Jacob Newman of Monterey, 12-0.
Michael Kraft, a sophomore at SLV, finished second in the 112-pound bracket, winning his first three matches before dropping the final to Gabe Garcia of Oregon’s Liberty High. Kraft survived a grueling battle with Alisal High’s Johnny Alonzo in the semifinals. After earning a healthy 8-2 lead in the first two rounds, he spent nearly the entire third period an inch or so from being pinned; however, the swarthy flyweight held Alonzo off to pull out a huge win and guarantee a top-two finish.
“I knew if I could stay off my back, I had him.” Kraft said “I just had to ride that one out.”
Scotts Valley’s top finisher was Chris Youmans, who took fifth place by a 4-2 decision over Arthur Georgiyev of South San Francisco in the 152-pound weight class. Youmans pinned his first three opponents before falling to Placer High’s Scott Dietz in the semifinals.
“(Dietz) was fast and technical.” Youmans said “That is a guy I would love to wrestle again.”
SLV’s Ben Landauer placed fourth in the 215-pound weight class after pinning his first four challengers. Landauer was stopped short in the third-place match by Fremont’s Cristian Arriaga with a pin at 2 minutes, 6 seconds.
Alisal High of Salinas won the team competition with 160 tournament points. Aptos finished atop the local teams in 14th place with 92.5 points. SLV finished 19th with 78, Soquel was 23rd with 55.5 and Pajaro Valley was 26th with 45.5.
Scotts Valley (28th place, 43 points), Harbor (29th, 42), Watsonville (30th, 18) and Santa Cruz (31st, 16) rounded out the local team standings.
“Overall, this was a really good showing for us,” Scotts Valley head coach Jared Norman said. “We have work to do as a team, but we are learning really fast.”
