Pease wins title at Bianchini Memorial

By Dick Sparrer

Andrew Pease is often called upon to face the toughest test.

The Los Gatos wrestler generally gets matched up with the best the opposition has to offer, even if it means that he has to move out of his comfortable 140-pound weight class to do it.

That was the case last week when Pease had to cut weight to get into the 135-pound division to square off with Fremont's best, Anthony Baza.

Pease lost 5-2 to Baza, a Central Coast Section placer for the Firebirds a year ago. But his unselfish act helped the Wildcats roll to the important team win over Fremont.

Pease returned to his familiar 140-pound division last weekend at the rugged Gary Bianchini Memorial Tournament at Cupertino. And he was comfortable enough there to breeze to an individual championship.

Pease ran his season record to 22-2 with four wins on Saturday. He pinned twice and won a 7-0 decision to earn a place in the finals, then clinched the title with a 9-2 victory.

"He had a very nice tournament," said Los Gatos coach Jeff Garlick of Pease, who was undefeated in both the Westmont and Riordan dual match tournaments.

Pease was 14-2 a year ago when he suffered a broken collarbone and missed the rest of the season. "He's come back strong with a lot of focus," said Garlick. "He looks to place at section."

Pease topped a list of six Gatos placers at the Bianchini, leading the Cats to a seventh-place finish in the rugged tournament.

"This is called the toughest one-day tournament in California," said Garlick.

David Serwitz nailed third at 135 pounds, Brian Miguel was fourth at 130, Ian Carpenter grabbed fifth at 215 and James Pease at 152 and Jerry Yuhara at 160 were each sixth.

Serwitz was seeded eighth at 135 pounds, but battled for a third-place finish.

"He well over-exceeded what he was expected to do," said the coach.

Miguel, just a freshman, suffered a couple of tough losses, but still managed to finish fourth. He lost 8-6 in overtime, then lost 5-4 in the third-place match.

"He was down 4-0," said Garlick of Miguel, "but he came roaring back and almost won it."

Carpenter nailed a pair of pins, but lost a close match to a Los Altos wrestler to fall into the fifth-place round.

Richard Escobar didn't place at 171 pounds for the Wildcats, but he did come through with an impressive pin win over Leo Saenz of Fremont.

"He pinned the guy who he had lost to the other night [in the dual match]," said Garlick. That knocked Saenz out of the tournament and helped the Wildcats finish ahead of the Firebirds in the team standings.

Los Gatos had beaten Fremont 35-27 earlier in the week in a dual match in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

"That was a very big win," said Garlick of the victory over the Firebirds. "We wrestled very well as a team."

Each team won seven bouts in the match, "but we did not get pinned once, and we pinned four of their guys."

Los Gatos lost five of the first six matches, but the Wildcats finished with a blaze of glory to pull out the team win.

Gatos trailed Fremont 25-17 heading into the last three bouts, but the Cats won all three by fall.

Matt Kanzler pinned with just a second remaining in the first round at 189 pounds to cut the Fremont lead to 25-23, and Evan McDonald pinned with a second left in the second round at 215.

"He had to win, and he did," said Garlick of McDonald, who gave Gatos a 29-25 lead.

Carpenter, moving up to 275 pounds from 215, pinned 56 seconds into the third round at heavyweight to cap the Los Gatos victory.

Miguel pinned with three seconds left in the second round at 130 pounds to get Gatos its first win of the night.

"He came up big for us," said Garlick of the freshman standout.

Tim Odell rolled to a 13-3 win at 140 pounds, J. Pease won 5-3 at 152, and Yuhara nailed a tight 3-1 win at 160.

"When we had to win, we did," said Garlick. "When we had to not get pinned, we didn't."

Young wrestlers Matthew Nudelman at 103, Adam Morganthaler at 112 and Ted Ross at 119 all lost to open the match, but none were pinned.

"When they were on their backs, they were just not going to allow pins," said Garlick. "That saved us six [team points] right there, which was huge."

Cats host tourney

The Wildcats will hit the road to visit Milpitas for a 7 p.m. match on Jan. 13 before hosting a frosh-soph tournament this Saturday.

The 18th annual Wildcat tourney, hosting the top teams in CCS, will begin at 9:15 a.m. Saturday with the finals set for 5 p.m.

"The top schools in CCS all send their kids here," said tournament director Scott Downs. "All of the big powers will be here."

The 24-team tournament figures to be the biggest ever in the event that dates back to 1983.

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