BAKERSFIELD — Four and out. Unfortunately for two Clear Lake High grapplers participating on the biggest stage in prep wrestling, that was their combined record.
Seniors Justin Mills (145 pounds) and Mike Kroppman (160 pounds) qualified for the wrestling extravaganza at Bakersfield”s Rabobank Arena but weren”t able to advance in their respective brackets and headed home after the first day of competition.
For Mills, he could have easily been 2-0 instead of ousted after two matches, but the Coastal Mountain Conference champ finished the year with more than 40 wins.
His first match of the day was defined by last-minute heroics by both wrestlers, but Tulare Union”s Mitch Moralez came up with the final heroic move. Mills scored a reversal right before the buzzer signaled the end of the first period to tie it at two points apiece but Moralez countered near the end of the second period with an escape that was questionable. Mills scored a takedown with a single-leg shot and let his opponent escape to make it 4-4 to begin the third.
But the theme of the match was last-minute heroics, and Mills wasn”t able to convert good position into a takedown in the third. Moralez, on the other hand, converted a failed shot into a takedown with 12 seconds left and sent Mills to the consolation bracket with a 6-4 win.
Clear Lake coach Mike Humble said Moralez appeared to be stalling but the official never called a stalling warning, much to Humble”s surprise.
“I was kind of shocked,” he said. “But we can”t leave it up to a referee to decide a match.”
Mills” second match was another tight one, but it didn”t start that way. Alfonzo Solorio from Temescal Canyon leaped out to a 7-1 early lead but Mills” conditioning and never-say-die attitude allowed him to make it interesting. He took Solorio down with a minute left, then let him up. Mills did the same thing two more times, bullying his tired opponent and then letting him up, but he wasn”t able to make up enough points and lost 10-7.
The consolation-bracket match was only five minutes long, as compared to the normal six minutes. Had there been an extra minute, Humble said, the outcome may have been with Mills victorious.
“We just ran out of time,” he said.
Kroppman”s first contact of the tourney began with a furious first period against Birmingham High”s Damien Noriega, the Los Angeles Section champion. The two traded takedowns, reversals and escapes, producing a 5-5 deadlock, and then went scoreless in the second period. In the third, Kroppman gave up a penalty point with an illegal hold and Noriega later slipped out the back of Kroppman”s leg ride for two reversal points.
Kroppman, who placed fourth in the North Coast Section Championships last weekend, lost the match 10-6. His coach said Kroppman was a wild-card of sorts, as his style makes him unique.
“Michael”s got an unorthodox style,” said Humble. “We didn”t know where it was going to go.”
It didn”t go to the third round in the brackets, though, as Kroppman faced elimination against Poway”s Ian Daube, the San Diego Section”s No. 2 seed. Daube dominated throughout with arm-bar tilts that racked up near-fall points. Daube outscored Kroppman 10-1 in the second period and his takedown and two-point near-fall in the third sealed a 16-1 technical fall that eliminated Kroppman.
Humble said the competition at the state meet is unlike anything else and that the NCS has a lot of work to do if it wants to become a power at the state meet.
“As a whole, most guys (from the NCS) are on the way home like we are,” he said on his cell phone while driving back to Lake County. “I didn”t expect any champions, but I expected (my team) to do a little better.”
