Silva takes 6th at Sophomore Nationals

Sean Silva used his spring break to wrestle at High School Sophomore Nationals and came away an All-American.

Silva finished in sixth place in the 112-pound class at nationals in Virginia Beach, Vir. on Friday evening.

Out of the 68 wrestlers in the tournament 35 were all-state wrestlers, 15 were state champs and two were two-time state champs. Silva went 7-3 during the three-day tournament and beat three state champions.

“I think this weekend, it helped me,” Silva said. “I found out I can take down some of the top guys.”

Silva is the first Barstow wrestler since Lionel Apineru to reach All-American status. Apineru was the national runner up in 2001 as a senior.
In his losses, Silva was still in striking distance. Against New Jersey’s Sean Dolan, who Hopkins picked to win the entire tournament, Silva battled to a 0-0 tie late in the match. However, a mental error lead to a penalty, helping Dolan secure fifth place and a 1-0 win, Barstow wrestling coach Adam Hopkins said.

At the tournament, Silva avenged a disappointing performance in Bakersfield for the CIF Championships, when he lost back-to-back matches to end his post-season run on the first day.

“After I went two and O in state, I kind of lost a little bit of confidence,” Silva said. “I was embarrassed a little bit, but I think I got my confidence back.”

Hopkins said he saw a whole new wrestler come out in Virginia Beach.

“I think the state tournament, what happened up there made him take the next step,” Hopkins said. “Mentally he’s come a long way.
“That says a lot about his character and his heart. He’s one of the toughest kids in the country.”

While Silva wrapped up his medal matches on Friday, the senior nationals began with Hesperia’s Andrew Collins, Daniel Gudino and Eric Lopez all competing.

Only Lopez, a 135 pounder who placed fourth at state, won on the first day for the Scorpions. He pinned Kevin Constantine, a Massachusetts state fifth-place finisher, in his first match and then knocked off Pennsylvania’s Zak Andrews 6-0 in the second round.

Lopez will face Ohio’s Chase Skonieczny, who is ranked seventh in the nation, in his first match this morning in the round of 16.
In Collins’ (130 pounds) only match, he fell to two-time Connecticut state medalist Tyler Banks.

Gudino, who placed eighth as a 125 pounder at state last month, came in overweight and didn’t make weight. He’s wrestling at 140 and lost his first match, 2-0.

In this particular national championship, only the top eight senior placing wrestlers from California are invited and five others from all the weight divisions make it in through a wildcard berth. A top four placement at the NHSCA

National Open Wrestling championships can also get in.

Sultana’s Ryan Fillingame (119), Cody Bollinger (140) and Jeremy Fillingame (160) as well as Hesperia’s Danny Reyes (189) all competed at junior nationals.

Bollinger and Reyes each finished in the top 12, while Ryan Fillingame went 1-2 and Jeremy was 0-2. They all finished up on Thursday.

— C.J. Daft contributed to this report.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4124 or
matthew_peters@link.freedom.com