Decade of dominance: HMB earns 10th straight PAL boys’ wrestling title; Lady Cougs win girls’ crown

“I’m pretty proud of the team,” said Franco Zilla, a HMB junior who claimed the 167-pound individual championship. “They’ve been working hard, and they’ve been good.”

HMB didn’t stop there, though, as the daylong event turned into the perfect Coastside coronation. With the PAL girls’ tournament running concurrently, the Lady Cougars also claimed the girls’ championship, their first since 2019. The HMB girls finished with 140 points, Terra Nova placed second with 91 and Hillsdale was third with 66.

Three HMB boys won individual championships, including Gabriel Garcia-Procopio claiming the title at 122s; and Gabriel Ober winning the title at 140s. Four HMB girls took individual crowns, with Samantha Fermo topping the podium at 112s; Chloe Manchester at 117s; Jamie Micallef at 157s; and Sophia Haherman at 172s.

Ober revels with wild finishing move

Ober was the perfect competitor to kick off the HMB party. The charismatic junior, with hair dyed Cougar orange, has been champing at the bit since last season when he settled for second place at PALs, seeing his 2023 championship match go to overtime, only to fall in sudden death.

“So, it was a really close match,” Ober said. “I’m glad that this year I was able to do better and finally progress.”

There was no such drama this time around as Ober prevailed over Sequoia’s Marco Baisch with a second-round pin, using his flamboyant signature move, a leg wrap power half. It’s a specialty move taught to him by Half Moon Bay co-head coach Sam Temko, one that involves Ober wrapping his opponent with his legs and flipping him onto his shoulders without ever using his arms.

As Ober wrapped his opponent and flipped him onto his back, the HMB junior looked toward his teammates sitting in the nearby bleachers, sticking his tongue out Gene Simmons style in celebration. A few seconds later, the match was over.

“As soon as he’s on his back, I knew I won the match,” Ober said.

Micallef stands alone

Micallef is HMB’s top girls’ wrestler, a reputation that already precedes the freshman. Her title Saturday was uncontested, as no one else enrolled to compete at 157s. So, Micallef was all smiles in defaulting to her first PAL title, standing all alone on the podium.

“Nobody wanted to wrestle her,” HMB co-head coach Ronnie Ekis said.

The path to glory was more difficult for HMB’s other freshman, Haherman, who went to the third round of her championship match with Westmoor’s Natalie Cuculista before earning the pin with a half nelson.

“I just rolled her wrist and just kept driving,” Haherman said, “then put a half in.”

Just prior to the finishing move, Ekis was walking by the mat, making his way from coaching Ober’s match at the other side of the gymnasium. Ekis had some timely advice, yelling at his freshman to do exactly what she did to win it, even though Haherman said she didn’t hear her coach.

“I just said: ‘Sink the half,’” Ekis said. “She had the half, and she was struggling with it a little bit instead of just punching it all the way through. That was it.”

Back-to-back titles in different leagues for Burlingame’s Jarrett

Burlingame junior Andrew Jarrett earned Upper Weights Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament honors after capturing the boys’ championship at 192s, his first-ever PAL title, but his second consecutive league title. A transfer from Serra, Jarrett won the West Catholic Athletic League individual title last season at 195s.

“It’s nice to couple it with a two-time league title,” Jarrett said. “That’s cool.”

Jarrett took a short road to the PAL title, earning a bye through to the semifinals. He recorded first-round pins in both his matches, including in the finals facing South City junior Ryder DeAsis.

Jarrett and DeAsis locked up for a fast-paced and physical match, that saw the South City junior score an early takedown in the opening round. But as time was winding down, and DeAsis tried a similar move, Jarrett went for it, throwing an inside trip to take DeAsis to the mat.

“He lifted me nicely and I got a takedown,” Jarrett said.

There was some controversy after Jarrett was awarded the pin, however, as South City head coach Temo Cervantes complained to the referee DeAsis’ shoulders never touched the mat.

“From our angle — and feedback from other coaches and spectators, just to clarify I wasn’t crazy — one of his shoulder blades was completely up,” Cervantes said. “And the referee called the pin from the other side, and his claim was by the time he got there, he had been pinned for multiple seconds. Which, the logic doesn’t make sense because he had just got there.

“But great match for … Andrew,” Cervantes said. “He’s a great kid. I don’t mind losing to him. But I felt like the match should have gone on.”

Jarrett is now 2-0 against DeAsis this season. The two last met at the MidCals Classic, Jan. 19-20, in Gilroy.

“I think we’re on our way to catching him,” Cervantes said. “We’re going to have to see him probably the next two weeks. And that was the best match we’ve wrestled against him so far.”

Freshman earns rare title for Woodside

Woodside freshman Evyn Ellis won the girls’ championship at 132s, the first PAL title for the Wildcats in at least the last two years. And Ellis won it in style with an overtime victory in the finals over El Camino’s Melina Lieu-Chin.

The championship duel was a back-and-forth brawl that saw points swing both wrestlers into the lead. Ellis trailed going into the final minute of the third quarter but battled back to tie it 9-9 and force OT.

“I was not paying attention till the end of the match,” Ellis said, “and then my coaches, I could not hear them over [the noise]. I think I just heard ‘one more point!’ or something like that. And then we tied and went into overtime, and I was like: ‘Oh my gosh!’”

Ellis said she was dead on her feet heading into OT.

“When it went to overtime, I was standing there, I was like: ‘I have to finish this quick, I’m so tired,’” Ellis said. “I thought I was going to just fall over and pass away.”

Despite the fatigue, Ellis stayed true to her typical approach. A freshman who prides herself on being a defensive wrestler, Ellis waited for her opponent to engage.

“I’m just kind of timid when it comes to takedowns,” Ellis said. “So, I like to wait for the other person to go for it, and then I can go after that and then take them down from a mistake they make or something like that.”

Growing up a fan of combat sports who trains at Bay Area Martial Arts Academy in Belmont, Ellis didn’t wait to pounce when Lieu-Chin took a shot. Just 14 seconds into the first OT period of her varsity career, Ellis earned the takedown.

“And she had a great sprawl,” Woodside coach Shawn Azzopardi said, “and stuffed the head and got a cross face to get control of the back. That got her the two points to be champion, right there.”

Brendza back on top for Carlmont

Two years after earning his first PAL title as a sophomore, Carlmont senior James Brendza battled his way back to the top of the podium, earning the title at 217s with a first-round pin of Half Moon Bay’s Jordi Sanchez.

After a tangle near the boundary line, the two big men hit the mat hard. Brendza emerged with a headlock on Sanchez and didn’t let go until he had the victory.  

“He just bridged me up, got me down,” Brendza said. “Somehow, I just ranked him and rolled, and just kept as tight as I could.”

Brendza settled for second place at 197s last year, falling short of the meteoric rise to the 2022 title in his first year of organized wrestling.

“Two years ago, that’s when I was first understanding wrestling,” Brendza said. “And now I’ve got a more solid grasp on the basics.

“I just remember the knee injury and trying to grit it out,” he said. “But now, it’s, I’m going on the attack, I’m on the prowl. I’m not just trying to be defensive. I’m actually attacking.”

Other PAL boys’ champions were:

Niko Seliantis, El Camino, 108s, Lower Weight Outstanding Wrester honors; Michael Schliewe, El Camino, 115s; Gio Morett, Capuchino, 128s; Arivka Purev-Chang, Burlingame, 134s; Abdulazis Abdybekov, Westmoor, 146s; Tyler Rosen, Terra Nova, 152s; Asher Supple, Menlo-Atherton, 159s; Eric Ruiz, Menlo-Atherton, 177s; and Joseph Wynn-Wilson, Terra Nova, 287s.

Other PAL girls’ champions were:

U’iwailani Lobato, Carlmont, 102s; Angeline Galon, Oceana, 107s, Lightweight Outstanding Wrestler honors; Lauren Aguilar, Burlingame, 122s; Dayna Ruiz, South City, 127s; Mariah Gonzalez, Capuchino, 137s, Upper Weight Outstanding Wrestler honors; Shannon Cleary, Oceana, 142s Aliyah Rivera, El Camino, 147s; and Emily Jane Vincent, Aragon 237s.