With the Aliso Boys Wrestling team displaying a dominant dueling season, they had more to wrestle for at the Coast View Conference Finals as well as the CIF Team Championships.
There were some notable individual performances from the Aliso Boys in the conference finals.
Jaydan Castro participated in the Boys 106 bracket, and ended up doing well in the finals. He successfully beat Justin Asbury from Trabuco Hills in the first round, and then Allen Morales in the second round by fall at 1:46. However Castro’s run ended in the next matchup against Aiden Han of Capistrano Valley.
In the boys 113 weight class, there were four wrestlers that competed. Aliso’s own Garen Keshishian, Mission Viejo’s Drake Finch, Capistrano Valley’s James Chudy and Trabuco Hills Brandon Gomez.
Keshishian defeated his first opponent, Drake Finch easily to move onto the second match. Then, another early fall gave Keshishian a spot in the league championship match. Keshishian ended up winning his weight title by a technical fault against Brandon Gomez of Trabuco Hills.
Ryan Iwohara also had a great run in the league finals, participating in the 132-pound weight class with a dominant 16-0 opening performance against Daniel Romero of Dana Hills. He then went up against Maddox Dalebout of Beckman High School in the semifinals. Iwohara got the job done, defeating Dalebout by fall with 1:44. In the finals, Iwohara squared off against Enzo Guerra of Tesoro High School. Unfortunately, Guerra got the best of Iwohara, however, Iwohara put on a dominant performance, proving himself a worthy asset to the team for CIF playoffs.
Iwohara stated, “I thought I wrestled well, and I can’t wait to prepare for what comes in store for us next because this season is not over yet.”
In the CIF team playoffs, Aliso drew against Highland High School in the first round.
Both teams received an at-large bid for the spots, with Aliso getting a home gym advantage.
Even though Highland had a better record than the Wolverines, Aliso came on top, defeating Highland High school by a score of 51-29 to move onto the second round.
The Wolverines faced off against Downey High School in the second round of the tournament, where Aliso ended up winning comfortably again, winning 51-23. Downey also held a good record on the season as well, going 13-4 on the season.
Next up for Aliso were the CIF semifinals. They were faced up against Arroyo High School, who were favorites as they came in first place in their league, with a record of 9-2.
In a very close nailbiter, the Wolverines ended up barely squeezing by in a 37-35 thriller, advancing to the CIF Finals.
In the finals, the Wolverines faced off against South Torrance High School, who beat Hillcrest, La Mirada and Warren to reach the finals.
In a back-and-forth match, the Spartans were up early, but the Wolverines came back in the middle. However, in the end South Torrance took home the title.
Derek Seo (12) commented, “I’m excited for what is in store for this team next, as we have made such great progress so far.”
Senior Cash Port, Junior Gavin Meraw, Junior Jake Noreyko, and Senior Garen Keshishian all punched their tickets to qualify for the annual masters tournament, where the best of the best compete against each other for the final event of the 2024-2025 season.
