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Pride move up to D-1, claim section wrestling banners for third straight year
Pitman wrestling
Pitman High School’s girls and boys wrestling teams celebrate after winning their respective section titles on Saturday (Photo contributed).

Pitman High School’s prolific wrestling program made history in more ways than one over the weekend.

On Saturday at the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section team duals at Stockton’s Lincoln High School, the Pride hoisted a pair of blue banners to add to their fast-growing collection. 

In the early afternoon, the program won the section’s first ever girls’ team dual title. Later that evening, the boys won their third straight section championship — and first at the Division I level — after a pair of comeback dual wins that each came down to the final matches.

It’s the sixth and seventh blue banners to be won by the wrestling program in their history.

“Just a really special weekend,” said assistant coach Matthew Vasconcellos. “To be able to come away with both the boys’ and girls’ championships at D-1 is pretty amazing, and I think it really speaks to where we are as a program.”

The girls’ lineup, flooded with state title contenders (Baya, Gabby and Annabella Austin, Lily and Alina Dizon, Patricia Bray, Melanie Delgado, etc.), faced little adversity throughout the day, starting the Section’s first-ever girls’ team dual playoff with a 77-0 throttling of Pleasant Grove. They followed it up with a 54-24 win over Del Oro, before pulling away late from Golden Valley to win 43-30 in the inaugural D-1 final.

The boys were also dominant to start their tournament, taking down West of Tracy, 64-16. In their second dual, though, they fell behind 31-9 to Folsom. Bur the Pride strung together 30 unanswered points, capped off by junior heavyweight Troy Ceja’s pin in the final match. The 39-31 win earned them a date with defending D-1 champion Vacaville, who jumped out to an 18-0 lead over the reigning, two-time D-2 champion Pride. Gabriel Camacho, a fellow junior competing at 108 pounds, also came up clutch as he muscled a 13-7 decision in the final match to complete the three-peat.

“Both of those guys are built for those moments,” said head coach Adam Vasconcellos. “Camacho is a big, tall, lengthy 108-pounder who had tough matches all year, against guys ranked higher than him, and that’s what made him ready. And Troy, an ultimate leader for our team and a staple in the program, putting a stamp on things. He deserved that moment. He’s been just dominant for us.”

Both wrestlers admitted they had nerves heading into their win-or-go-home matches in the respective duals, but that they were quickly extinguished as soon as they squared up at the center of the mats.

“As soon as I went in there, all the nerves went away and I just started flowing,” Camacho said. “I started the match strong. I got my takedown and back points (near falls) off the bat, took him down in the second round, and just held onto my lead. He got a couple of points on me late, but nothing too crazy, I felt in control the entire time.”

Teammates from both boys’ and girls’ lineups embraced Camacho after the win, hoisting him above their shoulders. 

“It’s a great feeling,” he said.

Though they couldn't quite elevate Ceja to the same heights above their heads, his teammates gave him a similar hero's welcome with hugs and high-fives after the semifinal dual with Folsom.

“I had to be sure of myself like in any other match,” Ceja said. “I knew I had what it took, but it’s the last match and anything can happen. We come to compete and scrap in every match. With a lot on the line, it wasn’t different. But I knew that once EJ won, it was a wrap”

The “EJ” he referred to is Edward James Sheeran, another junior at 138 pounds who pinned all three of his opponents Saturday. 

Ceja and Sheeran are both state qualifiers from a year ago, while Camacho is coming off a berth to the SJS Masters tournament. All three believe that their experience can help them make deeper, more successful runs this time around.

The same goes for the girls, as there are five with deep postseason experience.

“Our girls’ team has like five or six hammers who are beating most people you put in front of them, so that helps a lot in dual season,” Adam said. 

“A few years ago, we only had three or four girls on the team, in total,” he continued. “A few year’s back when we won the section championship, Baya was our starting 132-pounder. Now, we have 16 girls and we can fill a whole lineup, and they developed into the first ever team to win the section title, so it’s pretty awesome. I’m just so excited for the girls to have their own division now to compete in and celebrate because they all deserve it so much.”

Individual playoffs for local schools kick off Friday at the Central California Athletic League championships from Downey High School in Modesto, where a full slate of grapplers from Turlock High will also be competing.

The Bulldogs’ boys team competed Saturday in the D-2 tournament at the same venue, and won their first dual 37-35 against Modesto’s Grace Davis. They were then eliminated in their next dual by Ponderosa, 52-14.

Friday’s CCAL matches are scheduled to start at 9 a.m.