TEMECULA – The 14th annual “Battle for the Belt” took place at Temecula Valley this past weekend, hosting wrestling powerhouses from all over the state. This tournament is one of the nation’s premier wrestling tournaments, which is in its first year of not being headed up by the Hall of Fame duo Arnold Alpert and Lyndon Campbell. Alpert and Campbell transformed Temecula Valley into one of the most consistent and successful programs in the region.
Under their reigns, the program claimed 36 CIF Southern Section titles, four CIF Southern Masters team titles and finished Top 8 at the CIF State meet six times. The 38 section titles (two prior to Albert and Campbell) — 20 at the individual championships and 18 in the dual-meet format — is 11 more than any other program in Southern Section history.
Now, the program has started a new chapter as Alpert announced his retirement during the parade of champions at last year’s CIF State meet. Campbell also decided to step down from a leadership role with the program but remains on as an assistant.
Temecula Valley’s wrestling program is now in the hands of Coach Mario DeCaro, who is also getting help from his brother, co. Both the DeCaros are products of Temecula and wrestled for the high school program under Coach Campbell. Marco was also a California State placer and both the DeCaros wrestled at Cal State Fullerton.
Temecula Valley, currently ranked No. 8 in the CIF Division 1 coaches’ polls, held steady with another third-place finish at the 2023 “Battle for the Belt,” which is where they placed last year as well. Only two Golden Bear wrestlers managed to find their way to the Top 3 podium, but they were well represented throughout the 14 different weight classes.
Thirty programs from as close as down the street (Chaparral), to all the way from Nevada and Colorado, made their way to the area for the tournament this past weekend (Friday, Jan. 13, and Saturday, Jan. 14), which was won by Poway High School, one of the top programs in California. Palm Desert, another top program ranked No. 1 in the CIF-SS Division 1 polls, took second.
Top 3 finishers, including local performances:
- 106 pounds
1st Place – Griffin Rial (Pine Creek) 15-1, So. over Abram Cline (Granite Hills) 14-3, Jr. (Dec 3-2)
3rd Place – Siraj Sidhu of Del Oro
- 113 pounds
1st Place – Ronnie Ramirez (Walnut) 29-1, So. over Edwin Sierra (Poway) 5-1, So. (Dec 5-1)
3rd Place – Carlo Arreola of Granite Hills
- 120 pounds
1st Place – Billy Townson (Poway) 6-0, So. over Jaxson Taber (Palm Desert) 23-3, Sr. (Dec 6-0)
3rd Place – RJ Jones of Poway
6th Place – Aidan Munoz of Temecula Valley
– Leo Maestas (Clovis West) 22-7, So. over Munoz 19-7, Sr. (MD 10-0)
- 126 pounds
1st Place – Elias Navida (Poway) 6-0, Jr. over Jacob Perez (Monache) 29-4, So. (For.)
3rd Place – Bryce Luna of Saint Francis
7th Place – Justin Herrera (Chaparral) 26-6, Sr. over Armando Tamayo (Central) 21-11, Sr. (Dec 6-2)
- 132 pounds
1st Place – Jalen Concepcion (Poway) 5-0, So. over Izaiah Padilla (Pueblo County) 24-3, Sr. (Fall 2:54)
3rd Place – Malikhi Espiritu (Temecula Valley) 23-6, Sr. over Emilio Medina (Camarillo) 19-9, Sr. (Dec 3-2)
- 138 pounds
1st Place – Paul Kelly (Poway) 6-0, Jr. over Tim Murabito (Los Gatos) 21-6, Jr. (MD 11-2)
3rd Place – Michael Folch of Calvary Chapel S.A.
- 145 pounds
1st Place – Andrew Barbosa (Palm Desert) 22-3, Jr. over Evan Manzo (Etiwanda) 31-7, Jr. (UTB 3-2)
3rd Place – Steve Caday of Calvary Chapel S.A.
- 152 pounds
1st Place – Laird Root (Poway) 6-0, Jr. over Miguel Estrada (Frontier) 11-1, Jr. (Dec 4-3)
3rd Place – Collin Guffey of Granite Hills
- 160 pounds
1st Place – Dillon Pile (Los Gatos) 21-5, So. over Angelo Posada (Poway) 5-1, So. (Dec 4-0)
3rd Place – Joe Anthony Perez (La Costa Canyon) 6-1, Sr. over Logan Alawneh (Temecula Valley) 7-2, Sr. (Fall 0:52)
8th Place – Aiden Platte of Paloma Valley
– Javier Sanchez (Steele Canyon) 19-8, over Platte 25-13, Sr. (Fall 1:39)
- 170 pounds
1st Place – Luke Condon (Poway) 5-0, Sr. over Maximillian McWilliams (Calvary Chapel S.A.) 26-4, Jr. (Fall 3:55)
3rd Place – David Alonso of Palm Desert
6th Place – Kameron Phillips of Temecula Valley
– Junior Bumanglag (Granite Hills) 5-2, So. over Phillips 5-3, Jr. (Inj. 0:00)
- 182 pounds
1st Place – Thomas Sandoval (Vacaville) 29-2, Jr. over Alex Munoz (Valencia) 27-5, Sr. (Dec 7-4)
3rd Place – Petar Bojicic of La Costa Canyon
6th Place – Daniel Diaz of Paloma Valley
– Talha Bektas (Calvary Chapel S.A.) 20-6, Sr. over Diaz 22-7, Sr. (MD 13-0)
- 195 pounds
1st Place – Kainoa Acia (Del Oro) 20-3, Sr. over Matthew Porras-Diamond (Temecula Valley) 10-5, Sr. (Dec 3-1)
3rd Place – Daniel Gurovich of Camarillo
- 220 pounds
1st Place – Michael Murillo (Bakersfield) 16-1, Jr. over David Ozuna (Clovis West) 26-5, Sr. (Dec 5-0)
3rd Place – Adam Farha of Poway
7th Place – Vaughn Taylor (Chaparral) 27-7, Sr. over TJ Delgado (Redlands East Valley) 20-5, Jr. (Fall 1:30)
- 285 pounds
1st Place – Daniel Herrera (Palm Desert) 17-0, Jr. over Adam Stanley (Bakersfield) 16-5, So. (Fall 0:52)
3rd Place – Amir Farha of Poway
8th Place – John Phillips of Liberty Winchester
– Brandon Alcaraz (Birmingham) 25-8, Sr. over Phillips 22-9, So. (Fall 1:23)
The most recent CIF-SS dual meet wrestling polls show a few of the local boys’ and girls’ programs that are currently ranked, as selected by the CIF-SS Wrestling Advisory Committee:
BOYS’ DIVISION 1/DIVISION 2
No. 8 – Temecula Valley
No. 9 – Paloma Valley
Top 15: Chaparral
DIVISION 3
No local teams
DIVISION 4
No. 3 – Lakeside
DIVISION 5
No local teams
DIVISION 6
Top 15: Santa Rosa Academy
GIRLS’ DIVISION 1/DIVISION 2
No. 4 – Paloma Valley
*Polls released Monday, Jan. 9.
JP Raineri can be reached by email at sports@reedermedia.com.
