Flashes attend and participate in the CIF Southern Section Central Division Individual Wrestling Tournament this past weekend.

The host school was Colony High School in Ontario. The tournament was run extremely well with six mat of wrestling action taking place from 11 AM on Friday to 7 PM.
To advance to the Quarter, Semi and Finals on Saturday a wrestler would have to win three matches in the double elimination tournament. On average each weight bracket had about 30 wrestlers competing. By rough calculations that equates to 420 wrestlers participating in the tournament.

Flashes earning the right to represent their school were; Robert Bonilla, Mark Zavala, Kyle Castaneda, Jonathon Minero, Alex Rivera, Christian Conaway, Marco Vega and Sammy Orosco.

Wrestlers who had a bye the first round were; Minero, Rivera and Orosco.
Conaway won his first match by pin. The remainder of the Flashes lost their first match.

Zavala won his second match by injury forfeit. Orosco won his second round match by pin. Conaway wrestled the #1 seed and lost by pin, the remainder of the Flashes lost their second round matches.

Conaway won his third round match by pin in 25 seconds. Most of the other Flashes lost their third round matches and were eliminated from the competition.

Orosco and Conaway advanced to the 4th round. Conaway lost his fourth round match with less than 1 second remaining in the 1st period. Both Conaway and his opponent were wrestling like fighting snakes on the mat with each earning take down points, and back points and reversal points during the first period. The official questioned the timer to see if the pin call happened on the buzzer or after. It was ruled that the pin was at the buzzer which handed Conaway his fourth loss eliminating him from advancing further.
Orosco wrestled the #1 seed in his weight class for the fourth round. Sammy lost the match on points. Sammy went the full count with the #1 seed and wasn’t pinned, which was an amazing feat.

Orosco advanced to wrestle on Saturday but was handed his second loss by points.

Hats off to Flashes Wrestling and the Wrestlers for having a vision all season and staying focused on their goal. While the outcome wasn’t the dream finish some had hoped for they represented themselves with pride, wrestled full speed all year under a very aggressive 40 match season (not including League Finals or CIF ) and earned the respect of the Tri Valley League and beyond.
All of their success wouldn’t have been possible if it were not for Coach Bob Calderon who donates so much of his time, talent and resources. He’s coached Flashes Wrestling for 24 years and does so with passion for the sport and the kids. Coach Manual Ponce is the driving force for motivating and teaching the wrestlers. Coach Cal and Coach Manual work well together as can be verified by the number of dedicated wrestler who earned league championships.

Flashes CIF Video Match Highlights to be uploaded shortly.

Looking forward the Flashes will have their Wrestling Banquet and awards.