Comets finish 3rd in state wrestling tournament to Fresno, Sacramento

NORWALK (12-08-2018) – Palomar wrestled to a third-place team finish in the 2018 California Community College Athletic Association State Championships that concluded a two-day run on Saturday at Cerritos College.

Fresno City College, the Northern California champion, won the team title with 187 points, followed by Sacramento City College with 119.5 points in second place and coach Brody Barrios' Comets, the Southern California champions, with 109 points for their third-place finish.

Cerritos (103.5 points), Mt. SAC (79 points), Bakersfield (53.5 points), Santa Ana (52.5 points), Lassen (52 points), Santa Rosa (52 points) and Skyline (39.5) finished in fourth through 10th place.

The two Comets to reach championship matches in their weight classes both finished second.

Fresno's Isaiah Perez decisioned Palomar's Raul Ortiz 9-5 for the 133-pound championship. Augestine Garcia of Fresno won by major decision over the Comets' Mace Anderson 12-3 in the 165-pound finals.

In a major comeback, the Comets' Nick Kimball, upset in his first match of the tournament on Friday despite being seeded first out of Southern California, battled back and pinned Cuesta's Victor Bryson in 1:13 in the fifth-place match at 187 pounds on Saturday afternoon.

Palomar's list of finishers in the state:

125 Pounds –  Isaac Guerrero (4th place)

133 Pounds – Raul Ortiz (2nd place); Eric Marquez (4th place)

141 Pounds – Eric Reyes (5th place)

157 Pounds – Jessy Diaz (8th place)

165 Pounds – Mace Anderson (2nd place)

174 Pounds – Cameron Cox (3rd place)

184 Pounds -- Nick Kimball (5th place)

Teams finishing in 11th through 20th place were Modesto with 32 points, Chabot 31 points, Sierra 25 points, Shasta 22.5 points, Moorpark 21.5 points, San Joaquin Delta 20.5 points, West Hills-LeMoore 18 points; Cuesta 17 points, Rio Hondo 16.5 points and East Los Angeles 12 points.