November 19, 2022
Lopez and Hueter Take First at ELAC Brawl, Ready for CCCAA Regionals
Damien Lopez and Zeke Hueter earned their career first tournament championships, while four other members of the team placed top 4 at the ELAC Brawl.
Written by John Salzer
The Santa Ana Dons wrestling team competed in the last regular season tournament at the East LA College Brawl tournament, where most of the southern teams would be trying one last time to enhance their resumes for the Southern Regional tournament. Building momentum on the dual upset win over Rio Hondo, the Dons team saw Damien Lopez and Ezekiel Hueter get career first tournament championships, while four other members of the team placed top 4. The team as a whole placed 5th, their best tournament finish for the season so far.
Damien Lopez at 125 pounds was seeded number one based on his record compared to the other wrestlers in the tournament. With seven wrestlers in his bracket, he received first round bye automatically into the semi-finals. In his semi-finals match, he wrestled for the first time this season against Moorpark's Cameron Fernando, maintaining control throughout the match to advance to the finals with a score of 11-4. In the finals, he would have a rematch against Rio Hondo's Dylan Atherton, who he beat at the conference dual. While the match was closer in their first meeting, Lopez opened up to extend his lead and solidify his head-to-head against Atherton by a score of 8-4 and giving the Dons their first placing of the day.
At 133 pounds, teammates Nathan Ramirez and Makoa Shefte entered the tournament unseeded, and matched against each other in the quarterfinals. Ramirez would be the victor, earning 3 takedowns over Shefte's three escapes to advance to the semi-finals by a score of 6-3. Shefte would wrestle against #5 ranked Raul Jimenez of Cerritos college, losing by fall and being eliminated from the tournament. In the semi-finals match, Nathan Ramirez would wrestle Devin Martinez of Rio Hondo, losing by tech fall 20-5 and dropping into the consolation semi-finals. In that match, Ramirez would win against Mt San Antonio's Zachary McIlvain by a score of 8-5, setting up a 3rd place match against Raul Jimenez who had defeated his teammate. Ramirez would prove the better wrestler by staying on the offensive and by riding out his opponent, completing the upset and scoring a third-place finish for the day.
Nicolas Gutierrez would be the third top 4 finisher for the team, starting strong in the first match against Erinn Jackson of Moorpark with a pin finish. In the quarterfinals he would lose by majority decision to James Juarez of Bakersfield. Gutierrez would then fight his way back through an eight-man consolation bracket with wins over Edgar Silva (Palomar), Kai Ocampo (Cerritos) and Zach Hudlow (Palomar) before having a rematch with Juarez in the third place match. Zeke Hueter was the other 149-pound wrestler for the day, who came in as the number one seed like Damien Lopez based on his record. Hueter cruised through his first two matches with first period pins, before meeting his biggest challenge of the day in the semi-finals. Opponent Zach Hudlow of Palomar successfully excecuted a head and arm throw to put Hueter on his back, taking a 6-0 lead. Hueter would rebound by getting a reversal at the end of the first period, trailing 6-2. The rest of the scoring would all be Hueter, scoring an escape and takedown in the second period. Hudlow would choose neutral in the third period, allowing Hueter to get a takedown and riding time to win the match 8-6. Hueter would face against Dylan Moreno of Mt San Antonio in the finals. The match would be tied 3-3 after the first period, but Hueter would dominate riding his opponent until the end of the match, eventually getting a pin with seven seconds left to claim the second championship for the Dons team.
Jonathan Aldana would wrestle at 157 pounds for the first time, testing out the lower weight. After a decision win 8-3 in the first round, Aldana would win his quarterfinal and semi-final matches by falls, becoming the third Dons wrestler to make the finals. Facing Gavin Ibarra of Mt San Antonio, the first two periods of the finals match were scoreless. Aldana would ride Ibarra out in the second period, but he would be called for stalling for failing to bring his opponent down during an escape attempt. Going into the third period with riding time advantage, Aldana managed an escape to be ahead 2-0. A second stall call against Aldana for passiveness would go against him on scoring, bringing the match to 2-1 before Ibarra was able to successfully execute a takedown in the final seconds of the match. Aldana would finish second place by a score of 3-2. Closing out the day for the Dons team would be Sergio Gutierrez at 184 pounds. Gutierrez would rematch against Jaremiah Juarez of Rio Hondo in the first round, winning by a score of 7-3. He would then face the number one seed Justin Tripp of West Hills in the semi-finals, losing by technical fall. Sergio would rebound in the consolation semi-finals match against Michael Felix of Cerritos to win by fall, and continued that momentum against Joseph Robles of Victor Valley with yet another fall, earning his third place finish for the tournament.
The Dons will wrestle against the other southern team at the CCCAA Southern Regionals tournament hosted again by East LA College on December 3rd to qualify for the state tournament at West Hills.
