SPOKANE, WA – The Oaks took the short flight North up to Spokane Washington to compete in the Spokane Open hosted by North Idaho College on Sunday. Of the nine wrestlers entered, seven Oaks placed in the top 6. Freshman Jeramiah Steele earned his first collegiate Championship title at the 133 weight class after going 4-0 on the day. Seth Borba defeated #4 ranked wrestler Elijah Gandert (Grays Harbor) by tech fall (17-2) in his second match before having to forfeit due to injury. It was another great tournament showing for Menlo Men's Wrestling with some new names making their way into the leaderboards!
Oak Placers:
Jeramiah Steele (133) - 1st Place
The freshman from Arvada, Colorado brought his first collegiate title back to Atherton after going undefeated at the 133 weight class. A first round bye sent Steele to wrestle against Fabian Flores (Grays Harbor) where he dominated to win by tech fall (18-1). The next match against Jose Toscano (Evergreen) ended with a pin in the first round. In the semifinals, Jeremiah faced Kina'u McBrayer (Providence) where he came from behind in the second round with a 3-point takedown to tie it 6-6 going into the final round. The third period ended with an escape from the Oak to pull ahead 7-6 and win by decision to advance to the championship match. There, he was matched up against Aidan Go (Providence) where they battled through all three rounds. Jeremiah held control of the lead the entire high-scoring match with two 3-point takedowns in the first period, a nearfall in the second, and a reversal in the third. The win by decision ended in a score of 18-14 to win the 133-Championship title! This is just the first of hopefully many title wins for Jeramiah while he is at Menlo.
Ledger Petracek (174) - 2nd place
Another Oak that found success at the Spokane Open was Ledger Petracek who wrestled in the 174 weight class. Petracek went 4-1 on the day beginning with a pin over Joey Calene (North Idaho) in the first period. He then won against Stone Robledo (Unatt.) with a tech fall by a score of 17-2. Another tech fall (19-3) over Reece White (Montana Northern) would punch Ledger's ticket to the Championship round. The #18 ranked Oak was facing #2 ranked NaKoda Siegel (Montana Northern) and took the match through all three rounds before losing the match by a score of 10-3. Ledger has placed in all of his tournament appearances in 2023 and a 2nd place finish can be added to his accomplishments so far!
Ezekiel Lara (149) - 3rd place
Ezekiel wrestled at the extremely competitive 149 weight class and finished 3rd overall after going 5-1 on the day. His first match of the day was against Jalen Vladic (Providence) and wrestled into overtime rounds because of a 7-7 tie after the first three. Lara earned an escape to win in sudden victory, 8-7. The next matchup was against Scott Smisek (Evergreen) where a pin in the first period would quickly advance Zeke to the quarterfinals. A match against Evan Barajas (North Idaho) ended by decision (7-4) in favor of the Oak. In the semifinal match, a high-scoring match against Luke Van Orden (Utah Valley) would go to all three rounds before ending by a score of 12-18. In wrestle backs Lara won by decision (8-1) and had a no contest match to win 3rd place in the tournament!
Mathias Collins (157) - 3rd place
In the 157 weight class, Mathias Collins went 5-1 and fought hard in wrestle backs to win 3rd place. The opening match ended shortly after a pin over Achilles Roberts (Unatt.) in just 30 seconds. Collins lost in the quarterfinals against Justin Windauer (Montana Northern) before winning out the rest of the day. Mathias tallied two wins by decision, against Ky Haney (Unatt.) and Dougie Swanson (Providence), and a major decision over LJay Castro (Grays Harbor) to compete in the 3rd place match. It was not an easy opponent what-so-ever as he faced #14 ranked Ryan Graves (Montana Northern). The unranked Oak earned the upset victory by a 8-7 decision after wrestling through all three rounds to take 3rd place!
Other Oaks that found the Top 6 were Hunter James (197) - 4th place, Devin Shimabukuro (149) - 6th place, and Petar Bojicic (197) - 6th place. Hunter went 3-2 and opened his day with a pin over Sean Lightbody (Western Washington) and a 10-8 decision win over Elijah Stafford (Utah Valley). Devin went 4-3 on the day with 4 back-to-back wins by a pin, a tech fall (16-1) and two decisions before settling for 6th place due to injury. Petar was unfortunately also part of the injured Oaks in the end, however, he did go 3-0 before getting hurt with a pin, a tech fall and a very high-scoring win by decision (20-14) before calling it a day. Menlo has a lot to be proud of in their showing at the Spokane Open!
Up Next….
The next showing for Men's Wrestling will be next month on Saturday, December 2nd in Costa Mesa, CA where the Oaks will be in a tri-dual against Vanguard University and Arizona Christian beginning at 4pm PST.