Half Moon Bay dominates PAL boys’ wrestling championships

With the new format for postseason wrestling this year, there was no benefit to winning the team championship. The top four individual finishers in each weight class advance to the Central Coast Section North Division championship this coming Saturday at Fremont-Sunnyvale. The Cougars, however, took pride in the PAL team title.

“It just brings the team together, I feel,” Volynsky-Krug said. “In my eyes, as a team, we all did this together; we’re at the top together. Everybody contributed in their own way. Even if they don’t win first place, everyone did their part. And I’m grateful to all of my teammates.”

The roster numbers have been kind to HMB, a team that carries a full boys’ varsity squad this season. Most teams in the PAL can’t say that, a lingering result of high school wrestling’s slow return from the COVID pandemic. Because of the nature of wrestling, it was the last varsity sport to get up and running, and many are still reluctant to participate.

Host South City is a prime example of the down numbers throughout the PAL. The Warriors finished the season with only two boys’ wrestlers on roster.

HMB — a team that has dominated the PAL Bay Division since 2013 — has bucked the trend.

“This has been a really good year for us,” HMB head coach Ronnie Ekis said. “We’ve had a couple good years like this, but it’s been a while, I’d say, since we’ve had that many finalists. We’re really excited that hopefully the rest of these guys can really finish off strong.”

Bautista’s championship match in the 162-pound division was the stuff of HMB’s advanced program. The senior earned a third-period pin against El Camino’s Michael Cordero, and did so in dramatic fashion. While Bautista was leading on the scoreboard, he was disciplined to work the clock and execute the fall with a quick headlock with 11 seconds remaining in the match.

“I know it was late,” Bautista said. “My coaches were yelling at me to get the fall. I looked for it, and he swimmed out and I just caught the head and just stuck him.”

The three-round odyssey was by design, he said.

“It was fun too,” Bautista said. “Just knowing I’m trying to get better at my top game, so I was just not trying to rush anything, and control everything.”

Bautista’s older brother, Emilio, has been one of the secrets to HMB’s success. A Central Coast Section champion wrestler as a senior in 2016, Emilio Bautista returned to the Coastside program as an assistant coach this season.

“It’s exciting,” Bautista said. “We’ve been working really hard. I think the addition of having my brother being a part of the program really helps. It really motivates us. He was a CCS champ, so it’s been really helpful. And I think having all of us in the finals just makes us want to win it more. So, that’s really it, just the motivation we bring to each other.”

Mandujno won the PAL titles at 197s, executing a second-period pin of Carlmont’s James Brendza. Mandujno and Bautista have been the senior leaders on this year’s squad and have emerged as two of the top contenders to vie for a podium spot through next week’s CCS North Division finals, and the proceeding Masters Tournament which will decide qualifiers for the state tournament.

“Nico has been pretty consistent all year,” Ekis said. “He’s just kind of a brute. And his technique has kind of caught up with his strength, and he’s become something of a technician here. He’s been having a year like that pretty much everywhere we’ve gone. … Hopefully he can keep it going.”

Sanchez earned the title at 184s, claiming a 4-1 decision of Burlingame’s Nabil Balach. Sanchez proved quite the technician himself, scoring on a defensive shot before going on the offensive by shooting a low single to the leg.

A junior, Sanchez is new to HMB’s run of dominance in the PAL. And, it has been helpful on the mat, as he has approached this season with the proverbial chip on his shoulder.

“I think that comes from we’re a small town, so we have everybody doubting us because we’re such a small town,” Sanchez said. “And I feel like we put in the work every single day, and it definitely showed out tonight with all of our wrestlers in the finals, and a lot of our wrestlers being league champs. And I just think with our great coaching staff we have, our wrestlers are getting better day by day.”

Volynsky-Krug earned the 147s title, scoring a pin in the first period against HMB’s rival, Terra Nova, and Beau Buccini.

“I was on bottom, and I’d been practicing with Marcos Bautista how to watch my weight,” Volynsky-Krug said. “I knew my opponent was good with his hips and I just kind of caught him, and I stuck him on his back. And it was great.”

Also qualifying for HMB for the CCS North Division tournament — featuring teams from the PAL, the West Catholic Athletic League and the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League — Brian Hernandez (108s, fourth place); Gabriel Ober (134s, second place); Hermes McClellan (140s, second place); Franco Zilla (154s, third place); and Alexis Penaloza Vega (287s, second place).

Other PAL champions were: Hillsdale’s Richard Baez (287s); Menlo-Atherton’s Paula Tuulakitau (222s); South City’s Darius DeAsis (172s); Carlmont’s Luke Peasley (154s); Oceana’s Jalen Arceo (140s); Carlmont’s Ali Lobato (134s); Burlingame’s Ariunbold Purev-Chang (128s); M-A’s Ramiro Hernandez (122s); San Mateo’s Vladimir Eremeev (115s); and El Camino’s Michael Schliewe (108s).