Saratoga News

Sports

Nguyen's super sophomore season ends at state wrestling tournament

By Dick Sparrer

There was no medal for Saratoga's Nathan Nguyen at the CIF State Wrestling Championships held March 2-3 at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. There were, however, some valuable lessons learned.

The trip to state was a learning experience for the young sophomore, who just a year ago had placed fourth at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League junior varsity finals.

Nguyen made the huge jump from JVs as a freshman to the state tournament as a sophomore, winning a league varsity championship and placing third in the Central Coast Section along the way.

But Nguyen hit the wall at state. He lost a 17-0 technical fall in his first match at 105 pounds before losing a 1-0 heartbreaker a match later to face elimination.

Still, he got a taste of competition at the highest level in high school wrestling in the state, and no doubt he wants to go back for more next season.

It's been a remarkable sophomore campaign for Nguyen, who finished third in the section just two weeks after winning a league championship.

With the first-place finish, he qualified for a trip to CCS, leading a contingent of seven Falcons that also included seniors Doug Macklin and Danny Gold, junior Samir Mathur and sophomores Richard Macklin and Jasper Loren.

At CCS, Nguyen won four of matches over the two-day tourney to finish third.

Nguyen started the tourney with a bye, then beat Timo Kerachristos of Santa Cruz on a technical fall 19-0 and pinned Andrew Amaya of Independence at 1:50.

Nguyen started the second day with a loss by fall to ultimate finalist Al Quenga, a sophomore from Overfelt, but he battled back with a 2-1 win over Oak Grove junior Michelle Jiminez 2-1 and a 9-7 win over Riordan's Nick Mazza 9-7 to nail third.

The Saratoga sophomore finished the 2006-07 season with a brilliant 42-6 record.

Macklin wins one

Richard Macklin's CCS record was incorrectly detailed in last week's issue of the Saratoga News. Macklin, just a sophomore, lost two one-point heartbreakers, but managed to win his second match of the tourney.

Macklin lost 2-1 to Jacob Vasquez of Alvarez in his opener, but battled back to beat Lendl Yanagacio of Milpitas 10-6 a match later. He was eliminated in a tight 1-0 decision against Michael McChesky of Sobrato.