Oakdale High School

Among The Best - Oakdale Wrestlers Win Three State Medals

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Oakdale High’s wrestling program proved its mettle throughout the season as one of the toughest teams in the Central Valley.

Now make that the state.

On Saturday, March 6, Oakdale wrestlers came away from the California Interscholastic Federation State Championship Wrestling Tournament with three medals and a 13th place overall finish among 276 qualifying programs.

The honor came in front of over 18,000 fans across the tournament’s two days.

“I am super proud,” Oakdale coach Brian Stevens said. “Coming in here, we were ranked from 19th to 23rd, and I knew there was no way we would finish that low.

“To finish where we did was a pretty big accomplishment for a school of our size.”

A 4-2 semifinal loss to the state eventual champion (Nick Pena of Selma High) kept Mustang junior Shane Tate from his dream of reaching the state tournament finals, but he was hardly going to let one loss keep him from a thrilling finish to his season.

The talented 130-pound grappler ousted Natrelle Demison of Bakersfield 5-3 in the consolation semifinals and beat Shane Yacuta of Porterville 6-5 to claim a third place medal from the pinnacle of the state’s prep wrestling season. He outscored stubborn opponents 49-31.

“I was pretty mad about my loss in the semis but I did not want to let that get me down,” Tate said. “I’ve trained so hard the whole season and I figured I might as well not give up now and leave it all on the mat.”

Classmate Trent Noon lost just two matches throughout the tournament, and they came to the tourney champion and third place finisher. He won his way to a quarterfinal showdown with state champ Nick Sierra of Lemoore and fell 12-3. He took his next match with an emotional third round pin over Gilroy’s Vicente Aboytes to guarantee a medal, but was pinned in the following round by bronze medalist, Denzel Hawkins of Centennial. Noon outwrestled Dillion Reid of Red Bluff 14-6 in his next match to win a 7th place medal at 152 pounds.

“It feels nice just to place and beat some kids I was not supposed to beat,” Noon said. “Now I am going to try and get as many matches as I can in the offseason to get ready for next year. I know now that I can place and I am going to come back next year and try to do even better.”

Senior Charlie Gilstrap tried to fight back tears as he thought back on a four-year career with the Mustangs, culminating in his first state medal in the last prep tournament of his life.

The gutsy 215-pound wrestler beat Taylor Ferguson of Clovis 8-3 in the consolation bracket to earn a top-eight medal. Gilstrap was 5-3 against the state’s best, and avenged the previous week’s Sac-Joaquin Section Masters loss to Paul Buchanan of Ponderosa with a 5-2 victory with tournament elimination on the line.

“To accomplish my goal of placing after all the work I have put in with my coaches is really special,” Gilstrap said. “It’s a bittersweet moment because I am glad it’s all over, but I will miss these coaches.”

Oakdale also brought seniors Wyatt Casey and Kevin Butler and junior A.C. Brown to the tournament, all wining matches.

Butler (160) surprised some of the state’s toughest grapplers with back-to-back wins before a loss to eventual champ, Bryce Hammond of host Bakersfield. Butler won one more in the consolation bracket before a 5-3 loss to neighboring wrestler Erik Gomez of Waterford would end his season.

Casey (112) appeared on track to upset his way to a state medal after a 4-2 victory over Justin Jauregui (formerly ranked second in the state) in the tourney’s opening round. Casey lost his next match by just four points and fell to the consolation bracket, where a 5-2 lead on Daniel Flores turned into a loss by fall after a devastating injury to Casey’s ribs.

Brown went 1-2 in the tournament as well after a comfortable lead on Erik Hasan melted away with a Hasan pin in the final moments. He won his next match, 12-6, but dropped a 5-2 decision to Dalton Berncich of Petaluma to see tourney elimination.

Brown will join Tate and Noon for another run at a state medal next year.

“We got three of the six guys we brought back for next year, so it’s hard to say where the ceiling is for Oakdale wrestling,” Stevens said. “All season long we just throw them out there and they battle.”

The Mustangs will send freshman standouts Juan Garza, Ronnie Stevens, Tyler Noon and a host of others to the frosh/soph state championships in Fresno on March 19 and 20.