Folsom advances all 14 wrestlers to divisionals

When it gets to the postseason in wrestling, every team's first goal is to advance all wrestlers to the next round. When the postseason wrestling tournament began last week at Whitney High, Folsom's High accomplished that goal on the boys' side, as all 14 wrestlers advanced to the Division 1 tournament next week. Every Folsom wrestler placed in the top-six spots with a majority finishing in the top-three spots. The girls needed a top-four finish and nine of Folsom's 10 accomplished that with one being an alternate in next week's regional tournament. Folsom's junior varsity wrestlers finished off their seasons with four championships, as Lindsey Le (100) won on the girls' side, while Jordan Yi Berg (106), Sadhruk Nagineni (120) and Eduardo Arenas (285) also claimed JV championships. Folsom showcased their depth in the lightweights, especially at 106, where the Bulldogs swept the medals. In addition to Yi-Berg winning it, Angelo Cruz was second and Ben Turner came away with the third-place bronze medal. Throw in the fact that Folsom won 106 varsity and 113 varsity (with a wrestler who weighs 103) and you are looking at the top team in the area and maybe the state with the depth at the lightest weight class. The other bookend did well also as Arenas was first at JV heavyweight, while Colin Graham was another champion at the varsity level for the 285 weight class. For the varsity wrestlers, Folsom finished the day with five finalists and three champions for our ladies, and nine finalists and five champions for the boys. Speaking of lightweights, Folsom's girls showed they are also dominant as Pia Hill (100) and Leanna Remington (105) captured SFL titles with technical falls in the finals. This was Remington's first league championship and Hill's second straight and being a sophomore, is halfway to becoming Folsom's first ever four-time girls' league champion. Annika Scott (120) was Folsom's third girls champ on the day. Jalissa Lopez (110) and Peyton Ollinger (130) also made it to the finals before dropping their last match. Other girls league medalists coming in third for the varsity was Kaileia McFarland (115), Kierstyn Thompson (125), and Suhair Hossain (140). Ava Amataga was fourth at 170 to qualify for regionals, and Anna Heinze finished in fifth place and will be an alternate at 135. For the boys, Folsom had five champions on the day, with four more finishing as runner-ups. The finals ended up being a mini dual meet of Folsom vs. Del Oro, as that was the matchup in half of the weight classes. Kingston Cruzat (ranked No. 6 in CA) got things started off right for Folsom in the finals, as he took down #19 in CA Benson Tanner of Del Oro in the finals by a 4-1 score. Not to be outdone, Nox, Kingston's younger brother, was able to dominate Declan Leonard (ranked #17 in CA) of Del Oro in the finals. Cruzat was up 11-1 and nearly pinned his opponent before Leonard injury defaulted out of the match, as he was coming off a knee injury. In the next weight, Logan Hara (120) came in seeded third, but pinned the second seed from Oak Ridge in the semifinals before dropping his last match to the Del Oro's highest ranked wrestler (#12 in CA). The next two finalists for Folsom each won the second league championship of their high school careers. Anthony Cruz (132) blanked his state ranked Del Oro foe 5-0, while Orion HIll pinned his state ranked opponent from Whitney in the second round. The next three finalists for Folsom had matches that didn't end up as they would have liked, as they all lost to state ranked opponents from Del Oro. Two of them could have easily gone the other way, but it didn't happen for them this week. Kai Yi-Berg was leading 2-0 but got caught late and dropped a 5-2 decision, while Kayden Hoang nearly came back to win, but fell short by a 8-6 score. Sean Ramos' run ended in the finals to also finish in second on the day. Folsom's last finalist finished it off with an emphatic pin over his Whitney opponent as Colin Graham (285) capped off the tournament in the last match of a long day on the mats. Besides those reaching the finals, Folsom's boys had five other wrestlers place in the top-six to get all 14 weight classes qualified for next week's Division I Section Championship. Max Wong (126), Grant Martinez (150), and Rocky Ortiz (215) all rebounded from tough semifinal losses to come back and win their last two matches to finish in third place and get the bronze medal. Ortiz was Folsom's ironman on the day, as each of his three wins came in overtime or double overtime. Chid Mmagu (190) was coming off an injury and was able to manage a fourth-place finish, while Phuc Nguyen upset the No. 3 seed in his first match, but ended up matching his six seed, as he ended up in sixth place but qualified for the following week. This next weekend all 14 varsity boys will head to Lincoln High in Stockton Folsom is the defending champion of this tournament, but will have some tough competition with Del Oro and the Delta League Champion Elk Grove, among others. Folsom's varsity girls will be at Foothill High School next weekend for the northern regional. The top-8 place winners at each event will move on to the Sac-Joaquin Masters the following week at Stockton Arena.