Three Locals Place At Tim Brown Memorial

Elk Grove's Tristan Scott, Kelani Tonge and Marcus Worthy were the only Elk Grove-area grapplers to place in the top eight at the two-day Tim Brown Memorial Wrestling Tournament at McClellan Park.

Scott was fourth at 120 pounds in perhaps one of his best performances this season. He recorded three consecutive pins to open action on Friday.

Tonge took an eighth place at 126 pounds. Tonge opened the tourney with a loss to Logan Runner, one of the best grapplers in the Sierra Foothill League at Roseville, but rebounded well, according to his coach, Pat Coffing.

"For a kid that has zero post-season experience, (Tonge) has beat probably ten state qualifiers," he said. "He has probably made the biggest strides (this season)."

Tonge knocked Ethan Brewer of Sheldon out of the tournament in the match just prior to the medal round, by a 3-2 decision.

Worthy fought through an ankle injury to grab eighth place at 285 pounds.

"Marcus had a very good tournament," Coffing said. "He finally beat (Malik Hopkins of Chico) who has beat him three times this year."

The Brown Tournament annually matches some of the top area wrestlers with more than 1000 participants in a two-day affair.

Impressive was the team performance by Folsom. Three Bulldog grapplers won the championship at their weight and one other placed second.

"Nick Fegener, a 182-pounder, right now is my pick to win the state title,"  Coffing predicted. "Lorenzo De la Riva really looked good, too."

The Bulldogs now look like a legitimate threat to unseat perennial team dual champion Vacaville when the Sac-Joaquin Section Duals happen Feb. 8. Elk Grove hopes to compete in the team championships that day, but first they must defeat Franklin on Wednesday. Franklin coach Fred Marks recently told the Citizen his team has had numerous injuries and might be a bit undermanned for the annual Herd-Wildcat showdown.

"Fred's sandbagging," Coffing laughed. "Don't we all have injuries right now? This is a physical, long season."

Coffing admits he is a little concerned with this year's Franklin squad that includes a pair of state qualifiers in Josh Villaflor and Joey Banks.

"I am concerned about their athleticism up top," he said. "Athleticism is something that is hard to counteract. No replacement for displacement, right?"

Coffing knows his two freshmen wrestlers, Jacob Seto at 106 pounds and Roger Monroe at 113 pounds, will have to have good outings Wednesday.

"They'll have to pick up the offense a little," Coffing said. "Both are good on the mat and do well coming from underneath, which isn't typical for the young guys. It's encouraging for me as a coach that they are doing some of the most difficult skills now."

Both grapplers were 3-2 at the Brown last weekend.

The Franklin - Elk Grove dual is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Franklin High School.

Here are the results of the championship matches at the Brown: (courtesy CalGrappler.Com)

106
Isaac Blackburn – Del Oro def. Christopher Marin – Clovis West, 2-0

113

Perez Perez – Windsor def. Zach Miller – Ponderosa, 19-5

120
Curtis Booth – Folsom def. Anthony Wesley – Jesuit

126
Michael Knoblauch – Clovis West def. Angel Velasquez – Modesto

132
Nathan Cervantez – De la Salle def. Joshua Lazaro – Folsom, 3-0

138
Brandon Claiborne – Oak Ridge def. Conner Noonan – Henley, 16-5

145
Lorenzo De La Riva – Folsom def. Chris Garcia – Clovis West, 6-4

152
Paul Klee – Cardinal Newman def. Tyler Zimmer – Clovis West

160
Kaleio Romero – Oakmont def. John Leal – Chico, 5-0

170
Will Sumner – Nevada Union def. James Portilla – Oak Ridge, 15-0

182
Nicholas Fiegener – Folsom def. Alex Gamboa – Madera, Fall

195
Sullivan Cauley – Reno def. Eric Medina – Jesuit, 2-0

220
Gabriel Gonzalez – Washington def. Victor Raygoza – Orland, Fall

285
Jacob Minshew – Casa Roble def. Hexton Coronado – Clovis, Fall