Barajas Places 7th in Wrestling

STOCKTON —  Valo Barajas, a senior wrestler from Channel Islands High, thought a minute then smiled and said he was happy.

He did not win the 112-pound division title in the CIF state wrestling championships at the University of the Pacific’s Spanos Center on Saturday, but he finished on a high note.

An 8-7 victory over Wray Mamaril of Bishop Amat, who he defeated a week ago in the Masters Meet, gave Barajas seventh place in his first state meet.

Barajas, who had won the Southern Section 4-A Division and Masters Meet titles, came into the meet looking for a sweep.

After a 3-2 loss to Ikaika Molina of San Diego Serra in the second round Friday, he adjusted his goal to a third-place finish. But that also proved to be too ambitious.

“After I lost, I had to wrestle two more times last night (Friday),” Barajas said. “To take third, I would have had to wrestle four times today (Saturday) . . . and win all four times.”

Barajas stumbled in his second match Saturday, losing to Tyson Escobar of Ponderosa, 6-4. And that sent him to the seventh-place match in which he faced a familiar foe in Mamaril.

T. R. Merickel, Barajas’ Channel Islands teammate, lost a heartbreaker in the 119-pound seventh-place match.

Merickel and Matt Cano of Santa Teresa went to overtime with the score tied, 1-1. In the third one-minute overtime period, Cano scored a one-point escape then was assessed a one-point penalty for stalling in the final seconds.

The match ended tied, 2-2. But Cano won on the fifth criterion, first escape.

Jeremy Pratt of Newbury Park was eliminated in the fourth round of consolation by Steve Hilas of Vacaville, 10-0.

At 145 pounds, Heda Kuwata of Channel Islands was pinned by Bryon Campbell of Poway 3 minutes 30 seconds into their fourth-round consolation match.