LJ wrestling: Charles Long 4th at Mira Mesa tourney

Big Hayden Worst. wrestling at 184 pounds,

pinned Jose Escamilla of El Camino

in 3:21 in the second round.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Charles Long, a Viking wrestling at 152 pounds, pinned four opponents--two in the championship bracket, two more in the consolation bracket--to fight his way to a fourth-place finish in the 36th Annual Marauder Invitational at Mira Mesa High Sat., Dec. 10.

Long's total pin time amounted to eight minutes, 46 seconds to vanquish his four 152-pound victims. His quickest pin on the day was a mere 29 seconds, in his first match of the day against Joshua McClain of Morse High. He had another pin, technically called a fall in wrestling lingo, of 1:25 in the consolation bracket of Max Carrizales of Canyon Hills High.

The La Jolla senior had to fight his way up the consolation bracket after losing by a pin in his third (quarterfinal) match of the day.

Long was the only Viking to place in the major annual tournament, in which 23 entrants competed in the 152-pound weight class. Thirty schools took 305 team members to the school on Reagan Road.

Vikings Noah Pace (106 pounds), Abraham Sierra (126), and Gustav Rinaldi (170) all achieved seven team points each toward La Jolla's total of 52 points for 15th, in the middle of the pack. Senior Caden Kestler scored six points.

Pace, after taking a fall in his first match in the morning, came back in the consolation round to quickly pin two straight opponents, Ruben Butler of Canyon Hills and Cameron McDonald of Santana, in 15 and 11 seconds, respectively.

To the all-day tournament, head coach Kellen Delaney took 11 wrestlers, all boys, spread out across 10 of the 14 weight divisions.

The Mira Mesa tournament followed on the Viking team's 46-31 dual-meet victory over visiting Cathedral Catholic Wed., Dec. 7, and was their second "traditional" tourney of the young season--coming just before the winter break after this Wednesday's dual meet at Madison High. (Rancho Bernardo High held a takedown competition last weekend that only required a wrestler to achieve five takedowns to advance.)

Anthony Volkov (145) gets his hand

raised after defeating Levi Clair

of St. Augustine, 8-0, in his

second match of the day.

Volkov, a junior, gets feedback from

head coach Kellen Delaney right after

the 8-0 win at 145 pounds.