By Ed Piper
Patrick Fitzmaurice, a La Jolla 150-pounder, qualified as an alternate to the CIF Masters meet this Friday, Feb. 21, by winning in an unusual "playoff" at Helix High Wed., Feb. 19.
Fitzmaurice built a big lead over Abraham Carrillo of Crawford with repeated takedowns and near falls to win, 18-3.
"We've never had a situation like this before," said Mar Vista girls head coach Ed Delos Reyes, in which wrestlers had to follow up the CIF Division 4 meet last Sat., Feb. 15, with more matches before the Masters meet.
"We had one with the girls a few years ago," said Sergio Delos Reyes, the Mariners' boys head coach and Ed Delos Reyes' father. "But that was only one match."
At the Division 4 finals, which the Delos Reyes' hosted at their school, the 150-pound consolation bracket didn't have time to play out. Four wrestlers were then forced to show up for Wednesday's bout-off to decide which two would go directly into Masters as the third- and fourth-place finishers in the weight division, and who would go as an alternate. One of the four competitors would be eliminated entirely.
In the first match, beginning shortly after 6 p.m. in a single-mat workout room next to the pool on the Helix campus in La Mesa, Mar Vista's Aaron Marcial pinned Carrillo in 3:58.
Originally, the winner of that match was going to vie for third place against Brandon Scharer of Christian. But after Marcial's win and during the 30-minute wait until the next bout--with a timer running--it was decided that Aaron would go to Masters as the third-place finisher, and Scharer in fourth place, since both were already going to qualify for Friday's meet. They took photos and left.
What remained was Fitzmaurice's bout with the loser of the initial match, Carrillo. Whoever lost was going to see their season ended definitively.
Patrick, jogging back and forth across the workout room during warmups, and "shadow-wrestling" to be ready, started out well. In the one-minute, shortened consolation first period--which is the normal time for a first period in the consolation bracket--he recorded a takedown and led, 3-1.
In the second period, which by now was transpiring at 6:40 p.m. in the evening, with a small group of coaches and teammates of the Crawford entrant cheering him on in the team room, Carrillo struggled again in his second bout of the evening and went down 12-2 by the end of the round. Fitzmaurice had a reverse right out of the down position he started the period in for a 5-1 lead, then he recorded a near fall for four points and further built up his lead.
By then, the only question was whether Patrick would be able to take a fall (pin) against his foe.
With both wrestlers breathing heavily and audibly to start the third period, Patrick shot for another takedown, and after Carrillo's escape, he took him down again to finish 18-3.
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