Turlock High was one of 262 California schools to compete in the 2012 CIF State Championship this past weekend with four wrestlers in the tournament — Jason Valdovinos, Isaac Bertalotto, Erick Parsons, and Ernesto Guiang. After a earning a CCC championship and finishing fifth at Masters, the Bulldogs were confident heading into Friday’s competition.

By Saturday, however, only one Bulldog remained. Parsons advanced to the top-12 finale after a dominant first day performance.  Unfortunately, Parsons lost his first match on Saturday against Andrew Tiedeman of Palm Springs High. Had Parsons won his match against Tiedeman he would have secured a state medal at eighth place or better. Instead he finished his season, and high school wrestling career, with a 2-2 state performance.

Parsons is the only Turlock state qualifier that will not return next year.

Valdovinos dropped his first two matches at 113 pounds against stiff competition in the first day of state competition. Guiang finished 2-2 at 195 pounds. Guiang lost his first match to a North section champion from Chico High, won his next two matches and then lost his final match to an eventual medalist from Frontier High. Bertalotto, a freshman, accumulated the most Turlock wins; finishing 3-2 at 138 pounds. Bertalotto was one match away from advancing to the top-12 finale but lost 4-2 in overtime.

Despite walking away from Bakersfield without a medal in hand, Turlock is very enthusiastic about next year’s team based on this season’s success.

“The nice thing is three of these kids are coming back to wrestle for us. We should be very strong next year,” Turlock’s head coach Mike Contreras said. “I feel very confident saying we’ll have some state medalist next season, multiple medalists.”