It figures to be the Fremont­Cupertino­Los Gatos show when the wrestlers compete for SCVAL championships at about 3 p.m. on Feb. 15.

The three powers rank among the top teams in the Central Coast Section (CCS), and all three squads feature dominant tournament teams. It all adds up to make for a very entertaining climax to an exciting SCVAL season.

Cupertino, clad in red and gold, enters the tournament as the dual match champion in the SCVAL's De Anza Division. The Pioneers need a win over Santa Clara this week to complete a 6-0 dual match season. The Bruins, winless in league action, will host the Pioneers on Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m.

Los Gatos, wearing orange and black, will likely go into the tourney with a 5-1 season mark. The Wildcats, whose only league loss was to Cupertino, visit Palo Alto (2-3) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The Wildcats are gunning for their fifth straight league tournament championship.

Fremont, in red and white, expects to take a 4-2 dual match record into the finals. The Firebirds' losses came against Los Gatos and Cupertino, and they will finish the regular season against Wilcox (2-3).

"Los Gatos will probably be favored to win the tournament," said Cupertino coach Jay Lawson. "And Fremont has a very good tournament team, too."

Of course, Lawson is certainly not counting out his own Pioneers for top tourney honors.

Leading Cupertino into the tournament will be defending state placer Ben Reynolds at 217 pounds. Reynolds is 33-1 heading into the final week of the league season, and the senior mat star—by virtue of his eighth-place finish at the state tourney last year—has already clinched a berth in the National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships, slated for March 28­30 in Cleveland, Ohio.

"That's quite an honor for him," said Lawson.

The coach also expects Andrew Reese (277) and Jaime Mejia-Beher (173) to wrestle for league titles on Saturday. Reese and Mejia-Beher have just five losses apiece this season.

David Kullmann (162), Alex Wu (105) and Mitch Conley (121) are other Cupertino wrestlers the coach sees as league title contenders, and he's hoping to take a large crew of Pioneers to the CCS championships Feb. 21­22 at Independence High School.

"It would be nice to take 10 guys," said the coach.

Los Gatos Scott Downs is a little more bold in his prediction. The Gatos coach figures that the Wildcats could qualify all 14 wrestlers for CCS as "we wrestle to our potential. We have a chance to do real spectacular things."

Downs considers defending league champion Bobby Pease as a prospect to repeat at 147 pounds, and he also expects Adam Morgenthaler at 132, Matt Nudelman at 137 and Brian Miguel at 142 to wrestle for league titles.

Bryan Ceglio at 105, Matt Miguel at 119 and Holden Groves at 127 are other Wildcats that Downs figures could get into the championship round on Saturday, and he adds that Ivan Batinich (217), Cameron Fee (191), Eric Chen (173), James Alva (114), Mike Ross (154), Devin Lopez (277) and Jeff Oleson (160) could all place in the league tourney.

"But our league is very tough," Downs added. "There's nobody giving anything away."

In dual match action last week, Los Gatos rolled to its fourth win in five tries in the league dual match season with a lopsided 73-3 win over Santa Clara.

Pins by Ceglio at 105 pounds, Alva at 114, Groves at 127 and Lopez at 277 sparked the Wildcats to the easy win.

Pease at 147, Ross at 154 and Oleson at 162 each won by technical fall, and sophomore Kevin Gallagher won an 8-3 decision at 173. Forfeit wins went to M. Miguel at 121, Morgenthaler at 132, Nudelman at 137, Fee at 191 and Batinich at 217.

The only Gatos loss of the night came at 142 pounds when B. Miguel and Santa Clara's Steven Paschal locked up in what could have been a preview of the league championship match. Paschal pulled out an 8-4 decision win in the rugged bout.