Noe Campos
Granite Hills wrestlers Jonathan Duran, left, and Sergio Guadarrama each qualified for the Central Section Masters Wrestling Tournament, which will take place Feb. 21-22 at Selland Arena in Fresno.
As the winter sports season wraps up, two Granite Hills wrestlers are still fighting for their State Championship dreams.
Jonathan Duran and Sergio Guadarrama will compete in the Central Section Masters Wrestling Tournament Feb. 20-21 at Selland Arena in Fresno.
The Masters tournament is the step that comes before the CIF State Wrestling Championships. Masters is a group of individuals who have made it through their league tournaments and through their Divisional tournaments to get to the penultimate step. The ultimate step would be to qualify for the CIF State Championship tournament.
According to wrestling coach Martin Kouyoumtjian, there have been about 20 Granite Hills wrestlers who have made it this far.
Coach K said, to be a good wrestler your top three priorities should be consistency, training well, and putting 100 percent effort into what you are doing. Coach K added that this is the key for anyone who wants to be successful in anything they are doing.
“John and Sergio are such good wrestlers because of their consistency and training,” he said. “They come to practice every day. Every time they come to practice they give it their all.”
As a coach, it is important to see your athletes succeed. Coaches are there for the ups and downs. When an athlete succeeds this is also a grand moment for the coach seeing that they serve as their mentor.
“It is a great accomplishment,” Coach K said. “There are so many schools that are competing who also want to make it to the next level. It’s just nice to see that they have beat all the injuries, academic issues, and any kind of distractions.”
Duran, a senior, has a few words that he would like to share and what he expects out of this experience. His purpose for making Masters is in hopes to then be able to qualify for state so that he can compete for the state championship in his weight class.
“It is the road to state,” Duran said. “If you qualify it gives you a chance to make it to state. I want to be state champion.”
Being a good wrestler does not specifically mean you have had to be doing this for years before high school.
“I have been wrestling for three years now and I wrestle at the 146-pound mark,” Duran said. “Make the top 10, go to state, be the state champion, that is my big goal.”
Guadarrama, a sophomore, has high hopes for proving those who doubted him wrong.
“The significance of this tournament is it shows me what I could be and what I could prove to everyone,” he said.
Guadarrama has only wrestled for two years. He is competing at 108 pounds.
“What it means to me is another way of proving everyone wrong because, everyone doubted me saying I was not gonna qualify, that I was going to be defeated in the first two rounds of Divisionals,” Guadarrama said. “My expectations for Masters is hopefully qualifying for state and proving everyone wrong. My main accomplishment is just to make state.”