The two powerful 189-pounders met twice last week, and each one nailed a close decision win. But as far as Batinich is concerned, timing is everything.

Batinich lost a 9-4 decision to Walter early in the week, but it came in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division bout that the Wildcats won easily, 64-3.

A couple of days later, it was Batinich's turn for a win. And his timing was perfect—it came in the 189-pound championship match at the SCVAL finals.

Batinich was one of three individual champs for the Cats the league tournament held Feb. 14 at Los Altos. The Wildcats ran up 254.5 points at the meet to finish well ahead of runner-up Fremont (172).

"We've just dominated this tournament," said Los Gatos coach Scott Downs, who heads up the squad along with co-head coach Arno Dominguez. "And we're the dominant junior varsity team, too."

Los Gatos won its record-breaking sixth straight league finals championship, snapping the record of five the school had set last year. And the ease with which the Cats won the tournament surprised even the Los Gatos coaching staff.

"We knew we had the potential to do it," said Downs. "But we didn't think it would be that big."

But winning the league meet is just one goal that faces Los Gatos each February. Another is to qualify a wrestler in each weight class for the Central Coast Section tournament—and the Cats did that for a record-setting fourth straight year, again breaking their own record.

The large cast of qualifiers gives Los Gatos a legitimate shot at being a title contender in the CCS tournament Feb. 21 at Independence High School in East San Jose.

"Gilroy is the prohibitive favorite," said Downs, looking ahead to Saturday's finals. "We'll have to wrestle a little bit better than we did [at league finals]. We have to stay on their shoulder, and if they stumble and we don't have a disaster, we could do it."

It's hard to imagine the Wildcats wrestling any better than they did at the league tournament. Batinich, Bobby Pease and Jordan France each won league titles, and Jake Schonig, Nolan Nguyen, Matt Miguel, David Bitter and Dylan Gavin were each second. Thirds went to Mike Wysuph, Nolan Verga and Devin Lopez, and Bashir Olangian, Mike Ross and Eric Chen were each fifth.

Batinich's victory in the finals at 189 pounds could have been the sweetest win of the tournament for the Wildcats.

"It was an incredibly intense match," said Downs. "It went back and forth, and there was just five seconds left when Ivan got the takedown."

The two points gave Batinich a tight 5-4 win over Walter.

"They're about as evenly matched as you can be," said Downs, "and they're two quality young men."

"I'm sure they're going to meet against at CCS, unless something weird happens," added the coach. "I'd like to see them in the finals.

Walter was the defending league champion at the weight.

Batinich, 32-9 for the year, had pinned foes from Wilcox and Cupertino in the preliminary rounds before winning in the finals.

Pease, meanwhile, pinned his way to a title at 152 pounds and was named the outstanding wrestler in the upper weight classes at the tourney.

The senior pinned at 1:42 of the first round in his first bout against a Gunn opponent, then pinned a Harker Academy foe in 2:55. He wrapped up the day with a pin at the 3:45 mark in the finals against a wrestler from Wilcox.

Pease now takes a 37-5 season record on to CCS where he won a title last year at 145 pounds. He's already won more matches that any wrestler in Los Gatos history, and he's zeroing in on the season pin record of 30 set by Guy Greene in 1969. Pease, who finished with 29 pins last year, has 25 wins by fall this season and has just the CCS and state tournaments remaining on the schedule.

"It's going to be tough," said Downs, "but he could do it."

France won three bouts at 119 pounds to join Batinich and Pease on the victory stand.

"He just wrestled his way right through the tournament," said Downs of France, who pinned a Cupertino opponent, beat a King's Academy foe 14-2 and won 12-4 over a wrestler from Milpitas in the finals.

"He's sort of flown under the radar this season," said Downs. "The thing is, he hasn't won any tournaments. But he's tearing it up right now."

Schonig opened with back-to-back decision wins over wrestlers from Gunn (14-1) and Monta Vista (5-2) before getting pinned in the 103-pound finals by Fremont's Filip Novachkov, the outstanding wrestler in the lower weights at the tournament.

Gavin won 8-4 over Milpitas and 9-8 over Los Altos before losing in the 112-pound finals. "He's been a real pleasant surprise for us," said Downs.

Nguyen pinned a Santa Clara opponent and beat Brandon Greenwood of Monta Vista 11-4 before getting pinned by Joel Tran of Fremont in the finals at 125 pounds, and Miguel pinned against Homestead and beat a King's opponent 5-3 before losing 7-3 to Joseph Seo of Fremont in the championship round at 130 pounds.

"It looked like a dual meet to start off," said Downs, who has wrestlers in the finals in each of the first five championship bouts.

Bitter was second at 145 for the Cats, winning 17-2 over Los Altos and 14-7 over Monta Vista before losing 13-6 to Homestead.

M. Wysuph lost to the tough Dan Montanez of Monta Vista to fall into the third-place bracket at 160 pounds. Wysuph fought backs with pins against wrestlers from King's and Harker to clinch third place. He had opened the tourney with a 9-2 win over the wrestler from Harker.

"That's one of the toughest weight classes in our league," said Downs of the 160-pound division.

Verga came through with a third at 215 pounds, pinning a Wilcox opponent twice—in his first and last matches—and pinning a wrestler from Gunn. His only loss was against Ernesto Ancona of Fremont, the eventual champ.

Lopez also had three pins to finish third at 275 pounds, pinning twice against King's and once against Fremont. He lost 5-1 to a wrestler from Gunn.

Olangian, Ross and Chen each placed fifth to round out the list of 14 Los Gatos qualifiers.

The Los Gatos junior varsity beat up on the rest of the SCVAL, dominating the league meet with 11 wrestlers in the finals.

Pinning in the final round of the JV tournament to win titles for Gatos were Alan Howard (114 pounds), Charlie Denues (121), Collin Sanders (137), Dylan Rosen (142), Gary Wozniak (147), Jeff Wysuph (154), Carlos Alonso (162) and Kevin Gallagher (191).

James Alva (132) won his title by decision, and Daniel Hayashi (127) defeated teammate Adam Nudelman in the finals, giving Gatos a one-two finish in the weight class.

Dane Shaw (103) and Chris Lewis (114) were each fifth for the Wildcats.

"This team could have beaten any varsity team in our league [in a dual match] except for Fremont and maybe Monta Vista," said Downs of the talented JV crew.

In the final dual match of the year in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL last week, the Wildcats rolled to varsity and JV victories.

The Cats won all but one match at the varsity level, cruising to an easy 64-3 win to finish the year with a 6-0 record.

Pease (152) and Verga (215) each pinned, and Schonig (103), Miguel (130), Olangian (135), Ross (140), M. Wysuph (160) and Chen (171) each won by decisions. Gavin (112), France (119), Dane Diefendorff (125), Bitter (145) and Lopez (275) each won by forfeit.