Menlo-Atherton's Alexia Bensoussan and Half Moon Bay's Taylor Micallef each won titles at the Central Coast Section girls' wrestling championships at Watsonville High School over the weekend.
Alexia Bensoussan and Kiely Tabaldo
M-A's run of four straight CCS teams championships, however, came to an end as Evergreen Valley topped the standings with 180.5 points. The Bears were second, with 120 points.
Bensoussan won the 131-pound title to go along with her 2020 121-pound championship. After winning her Friday match by pin, Bensoussan, ranked No. 1 in the section by CCSrank.com, faced Los Gatos' Veloria Pannell in the semifinals. Bensoussan won by a 12-7 decision to move into the championship match against Evergreen Valley's Alana Washington, pinning her in the second round.
Micallef, ranked No. 1 in the section at 137 and who finished fourth at 121 in 2020, won her first CCS title at 137, using three pins to secure the title. She beat Sacred Heart Cathedral's Kate Napolitana by pin in the second round and then dominated Harbor's Amy Gray in the semifinals, pinning her in just 34 seconds. In the championship match, Micallef won the title with a pin in the final second of the match against Alianna Reyes of North Salinas.
With those championships, Bensoussan and Micallef each qualified for the state tournament that begins this week in Bakersfield. Only the top three girls in each bracket qualifies for the state tournament.
Joining Bensoussan and Micallef in Bakersfield are M-A's Kiely Tabaldo and Alex Lujan, who both finished second at 111 and 170, respectively. Woodside's Alison Richter finished runner-up at 189, while El Camino's Micaela Jade Mullan was third at 235.
The other PAL girls to finish on the podium, where the top six are recognized: Half Moon Bay's Yessenia Covorubert (fifth, 101), Mills' Annalese Leung (sixth, 116), M-A's Kayla Melcher (fourth, 126), Half Moon Bay's Jazmin Zilla (sixth, 143), Oceana's Shanon Cleary (fifth, 150), M-A's Zoe Zehnder (fourth, 160), Woodside's Brynn Adasiewicz (fifth, 170) and M-A's Alia Vunipola (fifth, 235).
On the boys' side, the top four from each bracket advances to the state championships. Burlingame's Xavier Bruening qualified with a runner-up finish at 285. Bruening, ranked No. 2 in the section, faced off against Fremont-Sunnyvale's TJ Takafua, ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 3 in the state, in the championship match.
Takafua came away with the championship following a second-round pin of Bruening.
Serra's Enzo Cappabianca did not become the Padres' first CCS champion since 2017, but he did qualify for the state tournament with a fourth-place finish at 170.
In what became a grudge match, Carlmont's Luke Peavley and Half Moon Bay's Donovan Farnsworth, who faced off in the 152 PAL title match with Peavley winning the PAL title, met in the CCS quarterfinals. Peavley came away with 4-2 win to move into the semifinals. He would eventually finish fourth to qualify for the state tournament.
Farnsworth made the CCS podium, but missed out on the state tournament by finishing fifth at CCS.
The other San Mateo County male wrestlers to finish on the podium: El Camino's Brenden Meneses (fifth, 126) and M-A's Mateo Sa Delope (fifth, 170).
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