BAKERSFIELD FIGHTING OFF SANTA ANA IN QUEST FOR THIRD STRAIGHT TITLE

By John Van Gaston for the COA

Heading into the championship round of the Commission on Athletics Wrestling Championships presented by US Bank being held at Fresno City College, there is a deadlock at the top. With only the championship finals remaining, Bakersfield College is looking for their third conseuctive state title, but have stiff competition from Santa Ana College, as they are locked in first place with 102.5 team points. Following close behind is Sierra College with 95 team points, with Mt. San Antonio College (84 team points) and Cerritos College (76.5 points) rounding out the top five teams.

Each of the top two teams have three finalists, while they will go head-to-head in one of the matches. For Bakersfield, they are represented by 133-pound Cody Gibson, 149-pound Alex Herrera and heavyweight Josh Marquez. As for Santa Ana, their finalists are 149-pound Mike O'Hara, 157-pound Sabas Cruz and 184-pound Brian Judd. Sierra, Mt. San Antonio and Cerritos also have three finalists.

At the start of the day, Sierra was the team leader, with Bakersfield second, Cerritos third and Santa Ana fourth, but several strong showings by Santa Ana Bakersfield pushed themselves ahead of the pack in on the inside track for the team championship.

http://www.tmi.150m.com/Results2005-2006/05-JCSF-Fresno-R2.pdf

-COA-