In action on Saturday, Feb. 10 the Oakdale Mustangs wrestling team claimed the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 3 championship. The tournament took place in Manteca and at the end of the evening, Oakdale battled their way to victory. With 297.0 total team points, it was enough to bring home the banner. Second place went to Ponderosa (201.0) and Merced (173.0) finished third.

A half dozen Mustang wrestlers placed first overall. Gideon Gerber, Carlos Garcia, Matthew Cooley, Wes Burford, Elias Corona and Emilio Johnson all stood tall on the podium.

Gerber (159) took down Mateo Heredia, Joey Watts and Vincent Almanza to reach the finals. When he got there, he defeated Christian Pebley of Ponderosa via 6-5 decision. Garcia (167) reached the finals by defeating Jayden Galvin, Angel Valenzuela and Ian Reynolds. Garcia defeated Rosalio Leal of Buhach Colony 11-4 to take first place. Cooley (177) defeated Edgar Rios, Noah Marez and Hunter Casted to reach the finals. He defeated Eric Almanza of Merced 10-9 in the final round. Burford (192) drew a first round bye, then defeated Anaikin Ewich, Lucas Johnson and battled Ethan Volzer in the finals. Burford pinned the Lincoln senior at 4:57 to take the top spot. Corona (217) got past Lorenzo Aguliar, Mahkail Smith and Ricky Kiser. In the finals he defeated Anthony Nixon of Merced 5-0.

Eziequel Vela, Jesse Meza, Anthony Martinez and Cody Soares all placed second in their respective weight brackets.

This Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16 and 17, the wrestlers travel to Stockton for the annual CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet. This is the final event prior to the State championship meet. This weekend action will take place at Stockton Arena.