2014-15 Calaveras Wrestling Season Summary

At the beginning of the season the coaching staff was unsure how good this team would be as we knew there were at least six weight classes which needed to be filled with JV wrestlers from last year. This is always a huge unknown because you just don’t know how well these JVs will adapt to varsity competition. It ends up that we had nothing to worry about. This team not only finished 11-0 but also won a league championship and two section championships.

In December we defeated Lodi and Tokay in preseason dual meets. Neither team came close to us and we were starting to feel pretty good about this team. We also competed in the Oakdale Tournament, where we finished 5th out of 25 schools with six medalists led by champion Jarred Kirk at 285. The next week we were at the Casa Robles Tournament in Sacramento. We finished 6th out of 30 schools with seven medalists led by champion Ayden Garcia at 182 lbs. Our last tournament of the month was the always tough Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno. We did not come home with any medals but wrestled well, gained valuable experience and were grateful it didn’t snow.

As January approached, the team was anxiously awaiting the start of the league season. This year, Sonora had joined the Mother Lode League for the first time. Sonora had pretty much dominated the fall sports and we were ready for a little payback. The addition of Sonora into the league not only increased the league’s competiveness but also required tri-meets as opposed to the traditional two way meets. In our first tri-meet we held an always tough Summerville to just 13 points and defeated Amador by forfeit. Two days later we were able to win our annual Gordon Hay Invitational with the help of champions Jason Stokkeland, Alex Rajewski, Shane Torre and Jarred Kirk.  The second week in January we travelled to Sonora for the big showdown. First we disposed of Linden 69-6, losing just one match. Then we welcomed Sonora into the league with a dominant 43-24 thrashing. The team was successful in sending a message that Calaveras was still the team to beat in the MLL. Victories over Argonaut, 73-3, and ROP, 82-0, as well as a 3rd place finish out of 20 schools at the Gregori Tournament led by champions Shane Torre at 220 and Jarred Kirk at 285 brought us to the end of January and one of our biggest tournaments of the year. The Tim Brown Memorial, with over 80 schools participating, is one of the toughest tournaments in the state and a good indicator of how we will fare in the Masters Tournament at the end of the year. We only placed Torre – 6th, and Kirk – 7th, but wrestled extremely well with several wrestlers losing in the medal round and placed 9th as a team. The team was improving by leaps and bounds and looking forward to our last league dual meet and the post-season.

Our last league match is always against BH the first week in February. In the past we have had some epic battles with the Bullfrogs but this was not one of them. Our JV team set the tone early with a 69-0 shutout, winning the league championship with an overall record of 9-0. Our varsity demolished BH 65-2, winning our 8th MLL dual meet championship in a row (a league record). Two days later we traveled to Stockton to defend our Division 5 Section Dual Meet Title.

We were the favorite coming into the tournament but knew that Escalon was always tough to beat. We had a bye in the first round and defeated Ripon 54-15 in the semifinals to advance to the finals for our perennial showdown with Escalon. Coming into the tournament, we thought we could beat Escalon if we wrestled well. That didn’t happen. We didn’t wrestle well, we wrestled great! The team rose to the occasion and had the best performance of the year in beating Escalon 40-12 for our 3rd consecutive Section Dual Title. It was obvious the team was peaking at the right time. Little did we know that this was just the start of a record setting postseason.

We hosted the league tournament at Calaveras on Friday, Feb. 13, which seemed to be unlucky for everyone except CHS. We placed 13 wrestlers in the top four and tied our existing record of 9 champions, winning the MLL Tournament for the ninth consecutive year (another league record). Sonora finished in second, 68 points behind us and 40 points ahead of third place Summerville.

The next week we traveled back to the Sonora gym for the Division 5 Section Tournament. We were the prohibitive favorites going in and we did not disappoint. We never trailed in team points and ended up finishing 42 points ahead of second place Escalon, who finished 55 points ahead of third place Sonora. It was a run a way. We placed 11 of 13 wrestlers, qualified 9 to the Masters and crowned three champions, Anthony Giangregorio at 138, Alex Rajewski at 145 and Shane Torre at 220.  

At the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Tournament more than 175 teams from all divisions battle it out for a coveted trip to the state tournament in Bakersfield. Competition is extremely competitive as our Section has traditionally been one of the top three sections in the entire state of California. Calaveras started wrestling on Friday morning with 9 wrestlers. After a tough day of wrestling, we were down to 5 who qualified for the following day. Saturday morning the first round of the tournament is extremely nerve racking as it determines who will place in the Masters. A win and you are top 8. A loss and your season is over. CHS had 5 wrestlers going into Saturday morning and went 5-0 that first round. For the first time Calaveras would place 5 wrestlers at the Masters. But we had a lot of wrestling to go.  No one had qualified for the state yet and these young men needed to win their next match to qualify. The next round we wrestled well.  We went 3-2, which meant that we had 3 wrestlers qualify for state. When all the dust had settled, Calaveras placed 9th as a team with state qualifiers Ayden Garcia – 4th, Shane Torre – 4th,  and Jarred Kirk – 5th.   Tyler Chavez at 106 and Alex Rajewski at 145 both placed 8th but did not qualify for the state. It was a phenomenal tournament for CHS. We placed more wrestlers than perennial powerhouses Vacaville and Ponderosa.

The next weekend, our three state qualifiers competed at the state tournament in Bakersfield. Shane Torre and Jarred Kirk each went 1-2. Ayden Garcia had a tough draw and did not win a match. Both Kirk and Garcia will graduate this year but Shane is a junior and will have another year with us. He is currently working hard in the off season in the hopes of taking home a medal at Bakersfield next year.

All in all it was a pretty special season. We accomplished far more than we thought possible when the season began. Winning a league title, two section titles, placing top 10 at the Masters with 5 medals and having 3 state qualifiers is outstanding. We haven’t done that very often. We would like to thank our sponsors, fans, parents, wrestlers and coaches for the dedication and support they have shown throughout the year.