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It was a bit of a chaotic evening at Hollister High’s Mattson Gym on Jan. 7 as the school held its first-ever two-mat dual meet featuring both the varsity and junior varsity boys’ and girls’ teams competing against Monterey High School in 39 matches.
The results were impressive: a 43-33 victory for the boys’ varsity, 48-24 for the girls’ varsity and 42-21 for the boys’ junior varsity. With only two wrestlers on the girls’ junior varsity team, the result was a 1-1 tie.
“Since girls’ wrestling is growing,” said Hollister head coach Steven Salcedo, “we needed another mat. It’s definitely different, and luckily, we have enough coaches to do two matches at once. The good thing is we came out on top.”
Despite the strong showing, Salcedo said that the Monterey team, headed by Roberto Dixon, was not one to overlook, with “kids who are really tough and always wrestle hard for him.” The results, he said, were even more gratifying since his own team, which lost eight star wrestlers to graduation, was relatively young.
“When they go out there,” he said, “sometimes we don’t know what’s going to happen. But all the training and drilling are showing as the guys are doing the techniques. As a coach, it feels good to see them going out there and executing.”
The dramatic expansion of the girls’ program to 30 wrestlers allowed at least a small showing for its junior varsity, represented by Miranda Mendoza and Ava Zapeda, with the latter winning her match by fall.
“They are both first-time wrestlers,” said coach Isaias Rivera, “so they took a little beating. But they are both pretty tough.”
Salcedo characterized the boys’ junior varsity showing that evening as strong but a little uneven with the Balers going back and forth with Monterey.
“They wrestled very tough,” he said, “but they were pretty competitive. Monterey would win a couple of matches, we would win a couple, so for the young guys, it was a good competition.”
One of the advantages that strengthened the team, according to Salcedo, was that some of the wrestlers were just short of breaking through to the varsity lineup.
“They have all been working really hard,” he said, “and overall, there were some good performances. Joshua Cruz and Devin Garcia come to the top of my head as both winning their matches.”
Hollister girls varsity head coach Mike Soto said that he was very pleased with his team’s performance in picking up its first-ever win against Monterey. He said it was exciting to see the girls “just keep battling as a team, coming together and building.”
“They wrestled awesome all throughout the lineup,” he said. “We had some really big pins, we racked up the points, and we beat a really good school that had won CCS last year.”
Soto cited two matches in particular, Mia Fausto, whose win by a fall “kind of sealed things for us,” and Gisselle Ruiz Boytes, who was injured partway through her match but ended up winning by a fall as well.
“She kept fighting through,” he said, “and she ended up getting the pin in a really big match that we needed to win. It was really awesome to see her come back.”
Boytes, who placed sixth at CCS last year, described her match as “pretty rough at the start” because her opponent was significantly taller than her, which made it difficult to take shots. After a reset due to going out of bounds, her opponent, Sarah Ashby, attempted a takedown. At that point, she said, her knee “popped a little bit.”
“I had to call injury time,” she said. “I quickly went (and) grabbed my knee brace, put it on, and the ref and my coach came up to me asking me, ‘Are you willing to continue?’ It was painful, but I didn’t want to lose in front of my home crowd, so I kept fighting through.”
Salcedo said that the boys’ varsity performed pretty much as he expected, with matches he had expected to win, like those of Cole Hubbard against Guillermo Guzman and Stephen Seymour against Lucas Myers resulting in victories.
Hubbard said he knew that Guzman was going to be strong because he had wrestled him every year of his high school career so far.
“I knew it would be a good match,” he said, “not going to be just a walk-over like, ‘Oh, I could just do whatever I want.’ I had to focus, work my game, work my moves.”
Hubbard said from the beginning of the match he could feel his opponent’s strength and, once he began setting up his shots, he could feel his opponent tiring and breaking.
“I was able to pick up my pace,” he said, “and it got to a point where he was desperate, and going for whatever. I waited for him to come out of position, put him on his back and pinned him.”
While Hubbard felt confident about a win against Monterey, he said he respected the team, which he described as solid.
“Over the years,’ he said, “it’s always been a battle against us. Their coaching staff is good people, and they’re always nice to us; never disrespectful at all.”
Seymour, who qualified for the state meet last year after placing fourth at CCS, easily sailed to his win against an opponent he thinks he has never faced before.
“I just wanted to start aggressive,” he said. “The coach came up to me and said, ‘Let’s get the pin and move on.’ I just wanted to take my attacks, my takedowns and then the opportunity came to me to cradle him, so I took what I had.”
Seymour also expressed a high regard for the strength of the Monterey team.
“They have some good wrestlers,” he said, “and they’re probably one of the best in the [Pacific Coast Athletic League]. We can’t ever take them lightly.”
The next home meet will be another duel event on Jan. 10 against Alisal, which follows a big tournament for the girls in Napa and one for the boys in Watsonville.
“This is going to be a pretty big week,” Salcedo said. “And there are some bigger tournaments coming up later down the road. We are just going to take them one at a time.”
Gisselle Ruiz Boytes and Sarah Ashby. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Gisselle Ruiz Boytes. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Cole Hubbard pinning Guillermo Guzman. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Cole Hubbard. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Lucas Myers and Stephen Seymour. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Stephen Seymour. Photo by Robert Eliason.
Girls’ varsity results:
102 – Leslie Martinez , win by forfeit
112 – Devani Mendoza, win by fall
117 – Eliana Salcedo, loss
122 – Roxana Gomez, loss
127 – Madison Harmon, win by fall
132 – Elena Vasquez, win by fall
137 – Lilah Olivares-Serrano, win by fall
142 – Victoria Zubiate-Gutierrez, win by fall
147 – Gisselle Ruiz Boytes, win by fall
157 – Hailey Brown, win by fall
172 – Mia Fausto, win by fall
175 – loss by forfeit
Boys’ varsity results:
108 – Carlos Segura, loss
115 – Alexis Bozarth, win by forfeit
122 – Daniel Moreno, win by major decision
128 – Carson Quesada, win by fall
134 – Tanner Frisco, loss
140 – Kaden Rodriguez, win by tech fall
146 – Matthew Perez, loss
152 – Kingston Dawson-Butts, loss
159 – Stephen Seymour, win by fall
167 – Michael Hubbard, win by fall
177 – John Cuneo, win by fall
192 – loss by forfeit
222 – Noah Mandujano, loss
287 – Levi Cefalu, win by forfeit
Boys’ junior varsity results:
115 – Aedan Handi, loss
120 – Alex Araujo, loss
128 – Lukas Lucatero, win by fall
134 – Orestes Montero, win by fall
138 – Devin Garcia, win by fall
144 – Emmanuel Cortes-Ceja, win by fall
152 – Avid Garcia, loss
157 – Robert Contreras, loss
167 – Joshua Cruz, win by fall
177 – Ilyas Figueroa, win by fall
192 – Jacob Martinez, win by fall
217- loss by forfeit
287- Cisko Victory, loss
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