EAST COUNTY WRESTLERS SHINE IN STATE FINALS

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By Eric Bartl

Photo:  Ramona High wrestlers Nathan and Savannah Kiddoo and Victor Perez.  All three competed in state competitions.

March 10, 2018 (San Diego's East County) - An exciting wrestling season for San Diego county came to a close March 2-3 with the boys’ state wrestling championships in Bakersfield. Poway High School won third place in state as a team. San Diego also delivered two individual state champions: Dominic Mata (152 lb.) of Poway and Jaden Abas (138 lb.) of Rancho Bernardo. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/sports/sd-cm-pow-sports-state-wrestling-20180305-htmlstory.html

The girls’ state wrestling championships were February 23-24 in Visalia. Eight girls from San Diego County placed in the state tournament, two of them from East County. https://www.osidenews.com/2018/03/01/echs-student-madlyne-navarro-one-of-eight-female-wrestlers-from-county-to-place-at-state-tourney/

Destiny Lyng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXTWtiDAhKA of Helix High School won 2nd place in state at the 137 lb. weight class. As the San Diego Union Tribune reported. one of Lyng’s claims to fame is that she has never been pinned.

Another East County wrestler, Savannah Kiddoo of Ramona High School, placed fourth in state at the 111 lb. weight class. After winning her first three matches, she lost in round four. She followed with a win against bay area wrestler Julie Tran and advanced to the third place finals match. Her loss to Roslyn Chang of Corona placed her 4th in the state.

Photo, right:  Savannah Kiddoo holding her Outstanding Lower Weight wrestler award from the San Diego sectional tournament.

Savannah’s brother Nathan, also a Ramona High wrestler, competed at the boys’ state tournament at the 120 lb weight class, where he made a good showing.

His win was big and his losses were small. In the first round, he lost 14-10 to Jacob Peralta of Vacaville. In his next match he pinned Jesse Gayton of Lemoore in 2 minutes and 54 seconds. In his final match, he narrowly lost to Richard Rojo of Rowland 5-4.

Ramona High wrestling coach Tyson Knierim explained to ECM that Nathan does not have many close matches. “He usually beats up on his opponents pretty good. It’s usually only if he loses that the match ends pretty close,” said Knierim. “Nathan is one of the top wrestlers in the state, but competition at his weight class this year was fierce.”

Ramona High wrestler Victor Perez (113 lb.) also competed at the state tournament. He won third place at the state-qualifying Masters tournament the weekend before. Knierim said that Perez “is one of the most inspirational student athletes I have known. Teachers and coaches talk all the time about how far he has come in reaching his potential.”

Perez and the elder Kiddoo are both graduating this year. Savannah Kiddoo still has another year to wrestle for Ramona.

Other East County wrestlers to participate in the boys’ state wrestling championships last weekend include Josh Kopmeyer (160 lb.) of Helix Charter, Darian Murphy (120lb.) and David Lipscomb (170 lb.) of Steele Canyon High, Nick Ghosn (182 lb.) of Grossmont High, Blake Schmidt (285 lb.) of Monte Vista High and Lucas Ah Key (285 lb.) of West Hills High.

 


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