It was a wrestling thriller when host Gunn-Palo Alto encountered Serra-San Mateo at the Gunn Quad Duals on Saturday. In the final bout, four penalty points for stalling on the Padres’ Evan Jones sent the 138-pound bout into overtime, allowing Gunn’s Shelby Oyung to win a 9-7 decision. That gave the Titans a dramatic 39-36 victory.
Jones, a sophomore, was initially declared a 7-6 victor and the two wrestlers had left the mat. That’s when referees, who had finished their work on another mat, informed the Oyung-Jones referee he had made a mistake in scoring.
“You get no penalty points for the first warning,” said Gunn coach Chris Horpel, in his 11th year. “You get a point each on the next two stalling calls, then it’s two points for the next stalling call. The referee doing the match had only penalized their wrestler one point.”
So with the score 7-7, Oyung scored a takedown in overtime to win.
“I hadn’t even noticed,” Horpel said. “I was so emotional, thinking we had lost the dual meet.”
Earlier in the bout, Jones had been assessed a penalty point for an in illegal scissors hold.
“Evan is a young wrestler,” Serra coach Ricardo Garcia said. “You can’t leave it in the hands of the referee.”
The Padres dominated the upper weights, getting four straight pins. Nicholas Agorio pinned Thomas Chang-Davidson at 1:45 in the 170-pound weight class. At 182 pounds, Kenny Meitz pinned Ben Bianchini at :58 seconds. Dominick Christmas, one of Serra’s top two wrestlers, pinned Sam Rothstein at 1:30 in the 195-pound weight class. The Padres’ Nate Jones pinned Zane Koehler at 5:05 in the 220-pound bout. Serra heavyweight Joseph D’Agostino won a tight 6-5 decision over Kirill Demyaneko, one of the Titans’ best wrestlers.
Serra’s Sepher Pazoki won a 7-0 decision over Carson Englehardt at 106 pounds. Gunn’s Travis Haro won by forfeit at 113 pounds. Serra sophomore Kyle Wilson, the other top wrestler for Serra, pinned Adrian Blancas at 4:59 in the 120-pound weight class. Gunn’s David Abramovitch pinned Joshua Salvatierra at 1:20 at 126 pounds. The Titans’ Ray Wu pinned Kyle Ravelo at 4:38 in the 132-pound bout.
Gunn’s Tanner Kerrins won by forfeit at 145 pounds, while Ian Cramer pinned Serra’s Nicholas Smith at 1:23 at 152 pounds. Gunn’s Alex Yu pinned Ben Khoury at 1:05 in the 160-pound weight class.
Abramovitch, Cramer and Yu were unbeaten on the day for the Titans, who are off to a 3-0 start in duals. Cramer is ranked No. 2 in the Central Coast Section at 138 pounds, Horpel said.
“Ian’s natural weight is 145 pounds,” Horpel said. “He doesn’t know where he’ll compete. He might drop all the way down to 132 pounds.”
Gunn defeated Salinas 60-21 and Pioneer-San Jose 39-28. The Padres downed Pioneer 39-36 and Salinas 51-16.
“We’re still getting football guys out to practice,” Garcia said. “We should be pretty good when we get things together. We’re a young team.”
The Padres start West Catholic Athletic League play vs. Bellarmine Prep-San Jose on Jan. 6.
“Bellarmine is the team to beat,” Garcia said. “St. Francis should be good, but Bellarmine is favored.”
The Titans are at the Lynn Dyche Invitational at James Lick-San Jose on Saturday. Gunn’s first league match is against Wilcox-Santa Clara at home on Jan. 8.
“Wilcox beat us last year and they should be good,” Horpel said. “Monta Vista is the favorite to win league.”
Email John Reid at [email protected]; follow him at twitter.com/dailynewsjohn.
