Dominant Winters helps Wood take 2nd in Armijo Invitational

FAIRFIELD — Josh Winters didn’t get a pin in his last match – as he’d done in his other three – but he got the next best thing.

The 6-foot-3 Will C. Wood High senior rolled to a 15-0 technical fall over Cody Simerley of Westin Ranch to win the 220-pound championship at the 42nd annual Armijo Invitational on Saturday.

It was Winters’ third tourney title on the season and the fifth on the day for the Wildcats, who finished second in the team standings to Franklin of Elk Grove.

Winters, who joined teammate Hunter Morrison at 120 pounds and Franklin’s Josh Villaflor in earning the tournament’s outstanding wrestler awards, was disappointed in not getting the fourth pin, but added, “I’m getting better from last year, so . . . ”

Winters pinned Rodriguez’s Ryan Ballard in 2 minutes, 46 seconds, Arroyo’s Shaun Rodrigues in 1:11 and Armijo’s Kris Elkin in 2:57 to reach the finals.

Once there, he took Simerley down within the first 15 seconds and led 5-0 after the first round. After his opponent chose neutral to start the second, Winters quickly took him down and sandwiched two three-point near falls around a two-pointer to wrap it up in the second round.

Of his day, Winters said he was happiest about “just finishing quickly and staying in there with these tough guys.”

Morrison had a 6-0 decision and two pins before getting a 15-0 technical fall of his own in the finals against Nevada Union’s Keaton Richards.

Wood’s other champions were J.T. Teel at 106, Alex Parvin at 138 and Adrian Maldonado at 152.

Wood’s Markus Mourlot was second at 160, as was Armijo’s Darius Levan at 106 after a 3-0 loss to Teel.

The Wildcats finished with 176.5 points, second only to the 215.5 of Franklin, which had four champions. Westin Ranch was third with 169 points, Armijo fourth with 155.5.

“I like coming here, it’s our second year,” Wood coach Thor Jensen said. “It’s a local tournament, it’s close, there’s pretty good competition.”

The Wildcats also got a fourth-place finish from Elijah Mando at 113.

Armijo had a tough time getting out of the first round in many weights, but rebounded to get thirds from Terrance Saeteurn at 113, Hayden Scibek at 132, Gage Mattuzzi at 138 and Danny Charos at 182, with fourths from Damion Simpson at 145 and Chance Udall at 170.

Ryan Dechant took third for the Armijo B team at 126.

“The tournament went smooth,” Indians coach Cesar Correa said. “I thought my guys had bad first rounds but finished strong. They won a lot of (top-four) medals.”

As for Armijo’s overall fourth-place finish, Correa said, “There were some good teams at the top, 25 teams (overall). There was was some good competition.”

Reach Paul Farmer at 425-4646, ext. 264, or pfarmer@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pfarmerdr.