The Moore League’s best two wrestlers and lone representatives at the CIF State Championship were both eliminated Friday on day one at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
Napohaku (135 pounds) lost his first two matches after being pinned by David Ferry (Central Catholic) in the first period of the opening round. The Lancers captain then dropped a 5-1 decision to Jordan Winslow (Sonora) and finished a phenomenal junior season with a 49-8 mark. Napohaku was both a Moore League Individual (two-time) and a CIF-Southern Section Central Division Individual champion and will again be one of the area’s top three wrestlers next season as well.
Pena (53-7) took a 16-0 technical fall drubbing at the hands of a very tough Travis Gallegos (Foothill), but as he always does, the Rams captain bounced back with decision victories over Anthony Uribe (San Fernando) and Cody Linton (Winter High School). Pena’s remarkable season ended when he was pinned by Vicente Aboytes in the fourth round to cap a 2-2 day for the Millikan standout in what turned out to be a 12-hour, first-day session in Bakersfield.
Pena ends one of the area’s best two year runs in recent memory with a school-record 102 career pins, was a two-time Moore League Individual champion, and was the catalyst in this year’s Moore League and CIF-SS Division III Team Dual title runs.
In other Long Beach area wrestling news, Warren High’s Damien Gomez (103) is the last Long Beach area grappler still standing after the Bears senior went 4-1 and could finish as high as third place.
Gomez is now 57-2 with 44 pins and lost just a third-round, 3-0 decision to Joe Moita (De La Salle) before bouncing back and winning two more matches on Friday. Calvary Chapel Downey’s Bradford Gerl (130) went 3-2 after dropping a first round decision and then rolling off three consecutive decision victories before falling just short to Sultan Beardsley of Red Bluff. Gerl finished his remarkable career at CCD with two state appearances, a CIF-SS Eastern Division Individual title and a 44-10 mark his senior year.
San Gabriel Valley League 215-pounders, Antonio Lopez (Paramount) and Rudy Calderon (Downey) both went two-and-out, but both can go home proud knowing they went further than 95-percent of their peers. Lopez (25-7) will be back for a senior year that should see him much more healthy after season-long ailments and Calderon (47-15) leaves Downey as SGVL and CIF-SS Division V Team Dual champs.