Four Oakdale High School wrestlers achieved their goal of reaching the CIF State Wrestling Championship … and one came back home with some hardware.

The grueling journey of the season came to its exciting conclusion at Bakersfield this past week. By Saturday night, March 1, it was Wes Burford who stood on the podium as he earned a third-place finish in the 215-pound division, bringing home the lone medal for Oakdale from the prestigious state meet.

In his first match, he defeated Burlingame’s Andrew Jarrett via fall. He then put away Jacob Maclas of Oak Hills via fall. Burford continued to impress as he defeated Emillio Ayala of Kingsburg via fall. Following his bout with Ayala, Burford edged out Esteban Sanchez of Granite Hills in a 5-4 thriller.

His chance at a state championship fell short when he lost to Angelo Posada, the third ranked wrestler in the nation, 10-4. That did not stop Burford, however, as he regrouped and put his focus on the next match. He went on to defeat Brock Rios of Frontier via a 4-2 decision. Then, in the battle for third place, Burford knocked off Kayden Cartee of Mayfair, who came in as the 13th ranked wrestler in the nation in the weight division. Burford won the match via fall to earn his spot on the medal stand.

Gideon Gerber wrestled at 165 pounds for Oakdale and went 3-2 during the tournament. Gerber began the tournament with a win over Daniel Armendarez of Selma via fall. He then defeated Syd Villegas of Abraham Lincoln via fall. In his third match he took out Christan Stoeber of Fountain Valley 7-2. Gerber then hit a speed bump when he lost to Slava Shahbazyan of Birmingham via a major decision 14-2. His journey came to a close when he lost to Isaiah Rangel of Palma 13-7.

Jesse Meza competed at 132 pounds. It was a 1-2 weekend for Meza. He drew a first-round bye. In his first match he defeated Alexander Marquez of Golden Valley via technical fall 16-0. Meza lost to Billy Townson of Poway via fall. His quest to place at the state level came to an abrupt end when he lost to Corona Del Mar’s Aaron Silva by a 3-1 decision.

Oakdale’s final wrestler to qualify for state was 285-pounder Matthew Cooley. After a first-round bye, Cooley earned a 9-5 victory over Alexander Carmona of Golden West. However, Cooley would fall to Devin Alarcon of Clovis North 3-1. He staved off elimination when he defeated Ethan Naus of Frontier 4-3. Ultimately, Cooley’s hope for a medal came to an end when he lost to Abraham Datte of Monroe 5-1.