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Host School Oakdale Dominates D-III Wrestling Divisionals
borba
Action on Friday saw Mustang Seth Borba, wrestling at 154 pounds, prevailing in an 11-2 bout here against Weston Ward of Vista Del Lago. Borba was the VOL’s top seed headed into the Divisionals. Marg Jackson/The Leader

Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15, the Oakdale High School wrestling team hosted the 2020 Sac-Joaquin Section Division III Divisionals. The division featured schools from the Capital Athletic League, Central California Conference, Foothill Valley League, Monticello Empire League and the Valley Oak League. At the end of the competition, it was Oakdale coming out on top as a team with many individual champions as well. The Mustang team took first place with 249 points. Vista Del Lago placed second with 211 points and taking third place was Ponderosa with 209 points.

Over a dozen Mustang wrestlers secured their spot for this week’s Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet being held at Stockton Arena. Six champions were crowned as Michael Torres (108), Brayden Abell (115), Jonathan Hernandez (122), Clayton Bashor (128), Ceasar Garza (147) and Seth Borba (154) all stood on top of the podium at the end of the tournament Saturday evening. Spencer Von Savoye (134) placed fourth. Jordan Van Rys (162) placed fifth. Garrison Gerber (184) earned a sixth place finish. Earning seventh place were Brock Osmundson (172) and Ben Molina (197) while Geno Sarale (222) and Jordan Garcia (287) each placed eighth. All of these grapplers will continue their quest to become state champions, heading to the Masters in Stockton.

In the finals, Torres defeated Merced’s Abram Granados and Abell defeated Jesse Cota of Patterson. Hernandez defeated Ethan Cota of Vista Del Lago, Bashor knocked off Danny Miles of Oakmont and Garza defeated Joe Luna of East Union in an all-Valley Oak League final. Borba defeated Shane Hoffman of Del Campo.

Von Savoye lost to Ben Murphy of Oakmont to place fourth. Van Rys was victorious over Yuvaj Singh of Oakmont. Gerber fell to Jackson Burgess of Vista Del Lago to place sixth. Osmundson defeated Juan Lezama of Central Valley and Molina defeated Thomas Carillo of Central Valley. Sarale lost to Conner Burns of Kimball and Garcia fell to Henry Seymour of Ponderosa.

This weekend’s wrestling action at Stockton Arena begins Friday morning, Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. and will continue Saturday. The top eight placers in each weight class will advance to the CIF State Championship the following weekend in Bakersfield. The brackets for this weekend’s Masters tournament have been released and here are the first round match-ups for the Mustang qualifiers: Torres (sophomore) vs. Shawn Ketsavong (junior) of Sheldon; Abell (junior) vs. George Cuadra (junior) of Sheldon; Hernandez (freshman) vs. Owen Benson (senior) of Folsom. Also, Bashor (junior) vs. Garrett Solso (junior) of Roseville; Garza (sophomore) vs. Peter Sim (junior) of Tokay; Borba (junior) vs. Noah Ruiz (senior) of Franklin-Granite Bay. Von Savoye (freshman) vs. Eli Hardy (sophomore) of Rocklin; Van Rys (sophomore) vs. Hassan Khan (senior) of Franklin-Granite Bay; Osmundson (freshman) vs. Manuel Diaz (senior) of Escalon. Also, Gerber (freshman) vs. Tal Malhi (junior) of Pitman; Molina (senior) vs. Ethan Brandy (senior) of Roseville; Sarale (junior) vs. Eric Hayward (senior) of Vacaville; Garcia (junior) vs. Giovanni Bennett (junior) of Foothill.

Female wrestler Valerie Osborne (170) took first place in Regionals at Central Valley High School. This weekend Osborne will take on Xitali Ubaldo of Mira Loma in the first round of the Women’s Masters tournament.

bashor
Going in as the top seed in the Valley Oak League, Oakdale’s Clayton Bashor took the mats at 128 pounds during the SJS Divisionals hosted by OHS on Feb. 14 and 15. Here, he took on Rimmel Hudson of Rio Linda, earning a win by pin just 50 seconds into the match. Marg Jackson/The Leader