Capo represented very well at CIF, Feb 21-22 at Santiago Canyon Community College. Here’s the rundown:
Capo started out with a 12-0 run on day one. All 5 qualifiers–Brandon Hernandez, Mike Davis, Geoff Mellor, Corey Shackelford, and Phillip O’shea–made it to the quarterfinals in their respective weights. The streak was only stopped by running into a few #1 seeds. All wrestlers made it to day 2, with Brandon, Mike, and Phillip in the semi-finals, and Corey and Geoff in the consols.
Corey
One particular story is that Mike, in order to get to the semis, had to upset the #4 seed from Arroyo. He did so in dramatic fashion, winning by fall in the third period.
Day 2–aka “the day of dreams and broken hearts”–was full of drama. Geoff and Corey dropped hard fought consol matches in the morning–Corey in round 3 and Geoff in the blood round–eliminating them from the tournament. Both wrestled well, and the other guy was just better on that particular day.
Mike dropped his semi match to #1 seed and #1 in the nation Zahid Valencia from St. John Bosco, but rebounded nicely with a win in the consols to put him in the third place match. In the match for third, he lost to the #2 seed from Norwalk, placing him at 4th.
Brandon continued to dominate by winning his semi match 12-0. In the finals, though he lost, he gave #1 seed Russell Rohlfing of Sonora all he could handle. Rohlfing will definitely remember Brandon’s name.
Phillip won by fall in his semi match, and then stunned the whole gym by pinning his opponent in the finals in :11 seconds.
He had 4 falls and 1 tech fall for the tournament, and he was named Co-Outstanding Wrestler for the upper weights.
Phillip’s title is the first CIF Championship for Capo in 6 years. The last one was Mike Maierhofer in 2009.
Here is a video of Phillip’s finals match: don’t blink!
Senior Geoff Mellor finished his career as a Capo wrestler on Saturday. Geoff: we are so proud of you. You have grown to become a good young man in your 4 years on this team, and we are glad to say you are a Capo wrestler. Through numerous ups and downs, setbacks and triumphs, you have persevered over it all and have finished your race. You controlled your emotions and did not allow them to defeat you. That is one heckuva feat, as this sport can be on huge emotional roller coaster.
Geoff
Now that you have crossed the line triumphant, you can now say you are part of the greatest fraternity of brothers on planet earth. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for you. It’s been an absolute pleasure coaching you and being your teammate. Don’t be a stranger, my friend.
As a team, Capo finished 10th out of 50 teams. Next up for Mikey, Brandon, and Phillip is Southern Section Masters in Ontario. This is quite the party, as over 250 schools are represented in the Southern Section. They will battle it out with the other qualifiers for a spot in the state tournament. Top 9 qualify. Wish them luck!
buncha weirdos
