Los Gatos High senior Daniil Gorshkov went undefeated with a 4-0 record in the Central Coast Section Wrestling Championships Feb. 18-19, dominating each opponent that stood in front of him.
He battled his way in the two-day tournament to a first-place finish against Palo Alto senior Max Felter, edging him in a 1-0 decision in front of a packed house of the gymnasium at Watsonville High School.
Gorshkov mentioned that winning the CCS title was nice to add to his resume and it was something that was expected of him, but that wasn’t the ultimate goal.
“This tournament was for the team mostly,” he said. “You take the championship and it sounds pretty nice, but we wanted to upset Gilroy this year. It did not happen, but I believe this is not our best team, yet.”
Instead, the Wildcats finished with several school records starting with the most team points scored (217) and nine medalists, including four that reached the finals.
The team also produced a record-setting six state qualifiers. Even though Los Gatos finished a distant second to Gilroy—which won a 19th consecutive CCS title—it represented the Mustangs’ lowest margin of victory since 2005, when they edged Los Gatos, 186-175. In other words, the surging Wildcats are coming for Gilroy.
“It’s a great team, what can I say?” Gorshkov said. “When I started off, I wasn’t as close with the guys on the team and now everybody’s spending time together.”
Gilroy won the team title with 312.5 points, followed by Los Gatos in second, Saint Francis (167.5) in third, Fremont (142.5) in fourth and Palma (115.5) to round off the top-5.
Gorshkov went into his finals match against Felter calm, cool and collected, especially because he had seen this same opponent twice this season.
But, they were scoreless through the first round. Gorshkov didn’t record a point on the board until the second period after he escaped from Felter, giving him a 1-0 lead. It was all he needed to claim victory and an automatic qualifying berth to this week’s CIF State Championships.
“I don’t like winning close like that, obviously I want a dominant match, get some takedowns and stuff like that,” Gorshkov said. “It didn’t happen today but I’ll take what I got.”
This is the final season of wrestling for Gorshkov but he knows the team will be in great shape after he’s gone.
Starting with E.J. Parco, who was one of those four finalists and the first sophomore at Los Gatos to win a CCS title. He won the 138-pound division final and a trip to the CIF State Championships after a 4-2 decision against senior Donte Lopez of Gilroy High.
“It feels pretty crazy because last year we didn’t have a season,” Parco said. “Just going into this year, fresh, first year in the league, first year in everything, it feels good.”
During the finals match, Parco said that Lopez got him on a takedown but he didn’t think too much about it, keeping his focus for the duration of the match.
They were tied at 2-all in the second round and Parco said that’s when he began to break down his opponent midway through the match.
“I tilted him and that began snowballing into the win,” he said.
A swift move in the third period put Parco ahead by two, which was good enough for the title.
“It meant a lot because I knew if I won this it’d boost my mentality, it’d boost my mentality for state and it was a good win,” he said.
Los Gatos junior Anthony Ramirez (145 pounds) was the runner-up to Sobrato High sophomore Clemente Holguin after an 8-1 decision in the division final. Sergiy Nyzhnyk (182), a senior, was runner-up after a 5-2 decision loss to Palo Alto senior Cade Creighton.
Timmy Murabito (132), a sophomore, also qualified for the state championships after a 13-6 decision victory for third place over Leland High senior Nathan Vasquez.
Other medalists for the Wildcats include junior Peter Bowen (126), who finished fourth after he was pinned by freshman Daniel Zepeda of Gilroy.
In the light heavyweight divisions, sophomore Oleksandr Nyzhnyk (195) claimed fifth place with a 2-1 decision win over Alisal High junior Diego Chazidez. Om Shastri (220), a junior, finished sixth after a loss to Mountain View High senior Calvin Conaway.
Dylan Lucas, a senior and lineman on the football team, placed third in the 285-pound division to qualify for a state berth. Lucas probably had the most incredible run of any wrestler in all the weight classes. After two byes through the first two rounds, Lucas lost a narrow 3-2 decision to get sent to the consolation bracket.
From there, he had to win five consecutive matches just to reach the third-place match, which he won, 5-2. Gorshkov said he had a pep talk with Lucas, who is a first-year wrestler, at the beginning of the week and told him all he had to do was be tough to wrestle hard to place at CCS.
“He did it, Dylan wrestled as hard as he could, very tough, got his face bloodied up and I think this is the highlight of the day for me,” Gorshkov said. “Not my championship, I expected this for myself. But Dylan took third place and he’s going to state.”
Parco, who is also making his first trip to the state championships, said he’s going back to the drawing board and he will work on some moves to get better for the big tournament. But for the most part, it’ll be business as usual when it comes time to hit the mat.
“I’m gonna keep my mind right, I’m gonna go in every match, have fun and do the best I can,” he said. “Leave everything out on the mat.”
The CIF State Wrestling Championships will take place at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield beginning Thursday. The championships take place Saturday at 6:15pm.For information, visit cifstate.org/sports/wrestling/wr_champ_info
Juan Reyes can be reached at [email protected]
