With 247 athletes, representing 25 schools, grappling on seven mats in two gymnasiums, Cupertino High School at least was the wrestling Mecca of Santa Clara Valley for 12 hours on Saturday.

One of the teams that traveled the furthest, Del Oro of Loomis, performed the best. With 10 athletes placing fifth or better, including individual champs Josh Summers (152 pounds) and Micah Ferguson (125), Del Oro racked up 224.5 points en route to the team championship.

Ferguson, the 2004 state champion at 119 pounds, was one of three repeat winners from 2004. Fremont junior Filip Novachkov (112) again was named Outstanding Wrestler for the five lower weight classes, and Monta Vista senior Dan Montanez successfully defended his 160-pound title. Fremont junior Tom Staats (189) and St. Francis senior Kevin Cunningham (140) also were winners.

Without getting a wrestler into a championship match, Los Gatos finished second with 175.5 points. The Wildcats boasted a top-six placer in nine of the 14 weight classes.

"We had nine guys in the medal rounds, and we won six of those matches," said Los Gatos coach Scott Downs. "But the second round just wiped us out. We wrestled flat."

Westmont, led by 215-pound runner-up Tyler Porras, finished in 14th place with 69 points.

F. Novachkov, Montanez, Staats and Cunningham all needed to win four bouts in a row to reach the head of their weight classes.

Novachkov's victories became more impressive the deeper he advanced into his bracket. He followed a 9-5 decision over Independence's Michael Howard with a 21-4 technical fall and two pins. In the final match, Novachkov needed just 42 seconds to pin Palo Alto's Jon Leape.

Montanez won his first bout in 59 seconds, then scored two major decisions over Josh Montoro of The King's Academy and Jeff Wysuph of Los Gatos, before topping Half Moon Bay's Chris Rey 8-5 in the finals.

"Jeff did a real good job," said Downs of Wysuph. "He really wrestled well in a very tough weight class."

Staats pinned three of his four 189-pound foes, including Del Oro's Braden Kolb with just eight seconds left in the championship bout. Staats' toughest match was in the semi-finals, where he edged Mike Morales of St. Francis 2-0. Morales had reached the semi's with an 8-4 decision over Los Gatos' Kevin Gallagher. He ended the day with a 4-1 record and a third-place medal. Gallagher, who went 3-2, took fifth.

Morales, Joel Shaw (second at 145) and Cunningham were the only placers for St. Francis.

To get to the title match Cunningham had to get past Fremont's Ogasawara, the Central Coast Section's top-ranked competitor of the 140 class. Cunningham sandwiched takedowns in the first and third periods around a second-period near fall en route to a 7-2 victory.

Ogaswara, who had opened by pinning Monta Vista's Travis Constant and topping Los Gatos' Collin Sanders 8-1, finished strong to finish with a 4-1 record and third place.

Los Gatos' top efforts were turned in by third-place medallists Jordan France (119 pounds) and Eric Chen (171). France, whose only loss was to Foothill's Phil Boyer in the semi-finals, won four of five bouts. Chen took three of four, losing only to eventual winner Travis Edwards of Monterey, the Outstanding Wrestler for the upper weights.

"Chen wrestled well," said Downs. "He's starting to come around to what we think he can do."

Wysuph and Jake Schonig (103) scored fourths for the Wildcats. Schonig, who was surprised 7-0 by Evergreen freshman Michael Rodriguez in the semi-finals, dropped a one-point decision, 6-5, to Boris Novachkov in the battle for third place.

Four Wildcats—Adam Nudelman (135), David Bitter (145), Mike Wysuph (152) and Gallagher—placed fifth with 3-2 marks. Wildcat junior James Alva went 2-3 and finished sixth at 130. Two of his losses were to Leigh senior Eric Nakagawa, who placed fifth.

Two of Nudelman's wins at 135 came against Westmont's Preston Falbo, who finished sixth.

Monta Vista sophomore Grant Kadokura won three of five matches and claimed fifth place. One of his wins was a 4-2 overtime win over Los Gatos sophomore Naveed Bagheri.

Briggs Memorial

Assistant coach Howard May took the Los Gatos "second varsity" to the annual Briggs Memorial Tournament in Tracy on Saturday and the Wildcats finished fourth in the 13-team varsity tourney. Ten wrestlers competed in the event, and nine brought home medals.

Calvin Hawkes (112) and Charlie Denues (125) each finished second for the Cats and Alan Howard (119) nailed a third.

Sean Goodison (130) and Eric Viale (152) were each fourth, Loren Peterson (103) and Robbie Nakata (140) were fifth and Jack Kramer (135) and Gurbaksh Sohal (171) were sixth.

Wildcat Invitational

The Los Gatos varsity will be idle this weekend, but that doesn't mean there will be no mat activity. The locals will host the 22nd annual Wildcat Invitational when 27 frosh-soph teams converge at the Los Gatos gym for tournament action. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m. with the finals set for 4:30 p.m.

The tournament will come two days after a tough match against Wilcox. The Gatos varsity will host the Chargers on Jan. 13, 6:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. junior varsity) for a key match in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

"Wilcox is a pretty tough dual match team," said Downs. "We need to be ready to go."

Downs was a little disappointed with his squad's effort in a 54-18 league win over winless Los Altos last week. The Wildcats, 2-0 in league competition and 15-1 for the year, gave up one match by forfeit, but lost three bouts on the mat—one by fall.

Still, the Wildcats dominated the Eagles, winning five matches by pin.

Dylan Gavin (125), Alva (130), M. Wysuph (152), J. Wysuph (160) and Gallagher (189) each won by fall.

Bitter posted a 12-6 decision win at 145 pounds, and Chen won 9-2 at 171.

Dick Sparrer contributed to this story