Lenny Dykes — Sports Writer
— After a yearlong COVID layoff, one of the nation’s premier wrestling tournaments returned. The “Battle for the Belt” is an annual wrestling tournament held at Temecula Valley High School, hosted by the Hall of Fame duo of Arnold Alpert and Lyndon Campbell. This juggernaut of a tournament is not for the faint of heart, hosting wrestling powerhouses from all over the state. Over 50 teams, 20 state placers and over 500 wrestlers, all showed up between Jan. 14-16, with hopes of donning the UFC style gold belt, given to the winner in each weight class.
Southwest Riverside County was well represented, especially by the Temecula Valley Golden Bears, whose wrestling program features their strongest team since the creation of the tournament. Other local hopefuls include Samuel Brown (182) Canyon Springs, Jon Paino (145) Chaparral and Javon Major (170) Paloma Valley.
Friday’s action saw 8 mats with nonstop wrestling. Hearts were broken and tears were shed as the elite paved their path. Nathan Perryman (120) of Temecula Valley impressively pinned his way into the second day. Teammate MJ Gaitan (160) also put his weight class on notice as he rolled through anyone who stood before him. The team leaderboard displayed Poway, Clovis and Temecula Valley as the top three teams, but local teams Paloma Valley 12th, Murrieta Valley 19th and Chaparral 22nd were hanging tough in the competition.
Saturday’s action was not a day for passivity and the field saw many great wrestlers fall. The big three, Clovis, Poway and Temecula Valley, put an absolute stronghold on the brackets. Other local area athletes that also placed in a few brackets were: Elijah Benavidez (138) Paloma Valley, seventh; Brandon Brown (152) Paloma Valley, seventh; Samuel Brown (182) Canyon Springs, third; Jones Kanaan (182) Murrieta Valley, eighth; Stephen Whelen (285) Great Oak, sixth.
Beyond that, it was all Temecula Valley from the area as they ended the day with 11 athletes placing and four punching their ticket to the finals. Golden Bear winners that did place included: Kyle Baldonado, sixth; Aidan Munoz, third; Brandon Baldanado, seventh; Nathan Perryman, sixth; Devin Avedissian, seventh; Bill Takara, fifth; and Matt Porus-Diamond, fifth.
Saturday night brought out the strobe lights, classic rock and a new energy for the would-be champions. Temecula Valley’s Abel Gaitan (138) broke the ice for the Golden Bears with a double OT win over Ethan Parco of Los Gatos. Gaitan showed his ability to smother in the top position and eventually winning by battling to his feet in the final seconds of double overtime. Not to be outdone by his cousin, MJ Gaitan (160), first ranked wrestler in the state, who came out and absolutely scraped his opponent in mere seconds with a funky-fireman, to a pin. Gaitan called for his belt in pure excitement as he defeated Angelo Posada of Poway.
Alec Peralta (145) took on Noah Tolentino of Poway, an Oregon State commit. Peralta came out strong and was first to strike with an outside single. Tolentino would not sit idle and responded with his own attack and took the lead, bringing the end of the second period. Down in the third, Peralta kicked up the pace with his relentless outside single attempts as he had little time to come back. Tolentino proved to be too much though and Peralta ended in defeat, but second overall. With the Golden Bears 2-1 in the finals, third in the state, Ethan Perryman (120) entered the circle to face Santino Sanchez of Esperanza.
Perryman was coming off a first place showing at the Doc B tournament earlier this year and is ranked third in the state. Perryman wrestled like a savvy veteran, allowing the action to come to him. In the first period, he stuffed a takedown to score first in the match. From then on it was a defensive Perryman that would not allow Sanchez to take him down as he outclassed Sanchez and won it all for the prestigious Golden Bear wrestling program.
When the dust settled, the top teams stayed the same with first place going to Poway, second place going to Clovis and third place going to Temecula Valley. Other notable teams from the area included: Paloma Valley, 15th; Murrieta Valley, 22nd; and Chaparral in 25th. There were three weight class champions from Temecula Valley: Ethan Perryman, Abel Gaitan and MJ Gaitan.
Lenny Dykes can be reached by email at ldykes@tvusd.us.
