BHS Wrestling: Silva advances to day 2 at state
BAKERSFIELD • Two years ago, Sultana’s Cody Bollinger was a wide-eyed sophomore who was just happy to be at the show. He ended up finishing in the top 12, one match away from placing at the CIF State Wrestling Championships.
Last year, Bollinger was back, not for fun but for business and that was to win a state title. It didn’t happen as he came in as one of the state’s top-ranked wrestler and left with no hardware, just the bitter taste of a two-and-done state tournament.
Fast-forward to Friday night at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, and Bollinger, now a senior, is primed and ready to stand atop the podium. The Sultana 145-pounder has been flawless in reaching his first-ever semifinals.
“He just needs to stay focused and make sure he’s ready to go tomorrow,” Sultans head coach Rocky Humphrey said. “He’s wrestling the entire match in this tournament. He’s going from start to finish. We’re excited at how the outcome of his matches have been.”
Bollinger opened the tournament with a 21-9 win over Liberty-Madera’s Nick Gizzo. He then teched Casa Roble’s Aaron Pickard 25-8. In his quarterfinal match, Bollinger beat Bakersfield’s Adam Fierro 11-7. He’ll face Washington Union’s Alex Rodriguez in the semifinals. Rodriguez was third out of the Central Section but came into the tournament ranked second in the state.
Senior 125-pounder Ryan Fillingame appeared in line to make it two Sultans in the semifinals. He was leading his quarterifnal match with Buchanan’s Daniel Arredondo 2-1 when in the first period, the match was stopped.
“He had a real bad migrane. It was making him dizzy,” Humphrey said.
The migraine eventually led to Fillingame defaulting the match because of injury. He’s still alive in the tournament as he must beat Selma’s Nick Pena in his opening match to place in the top eight. But there inlays the question, will Fillingame wrestle today? Humphrey said he just doesn’t know.
“We’ll have to see if he makes weight than it’s entirely up to him and how he feels,” Humphrey said. “He’s devastated. He’s worked all his life to get to this point.”
Had Fillingame won his quarterfinal, it would have put Sultana 12th in the team standings. But with the injury default, the Sultans are 20th with 29.5 points.
Also coming up short in a semifinal bid was Barstow’s Sean Silva. The senior 112-pounder lost to Gilroy’s Jesse Delgado 10-2.
“I wrestled well my first two matches,” Silva said. “I came out ready to wrestle. I got the victories. My last match — I guess I wasn’t prepared for it and I came up short.”
Silva will wrestle La Habra’s Aaron Lafarge for the right to place in the top eight. It’s an opponent he is very familiar with.
“I’ve wrestled him three times already,” Silva said. “I’ve beaten him every time but they are always close matches — overtime or last 20 seconds. I just have to come out ready. It was either first or third. That’s what I’m shooting for now. We’ll see.”
The rest of the High Desert is out of the tournament.
The Sultans’ other three wrestlers all fell in consolations. Sean Regan (135) lost his outbracket match than won a couple of consolation matches before falling to Selma’s Nathan Zarate 5-3 in the third round of consolation. Heavyweight Manuel Mazariegos went 2-2. He won his first two matches then lost his next two. Jeremy Fillingame went 0-2 at 171 pounds.
Hesperia coach Dave Stidham thought he had a chance at keeping the Scorpions’ three-year streak of state placers alive with 189-pound Danny Reyes but the senior came up short going 1-2 in his final state tournament. Also, Chris Sloat went 0-2 at 152 pounds.
While disappointed at the results, Stidham is confident that next year will be different.
“All the youngsters worked hard and the seniors did too,” Stidham said. “I was really happy with the direction we were going. This one is hard to take. We’ll get back in the room next week and we’ll start for next year. We’re excited about next year but I really wanted to end on a positive note here.
“Danny has been a trooper his whole career. I’m super proud of him. I wish he would have got to place but it just wasn’t in the cards.”
Victor Valley’s duo of Chris Swayze (135) and Darrin Duncan (160) were out after a couple of consolation rounds. Bolth went 0-2.
As for Silverado and it’s twosome of Ray Rubio (130) and Mike Joromat (215), they were also finished after just a couple of consolation rounds. Rubio got a default in his first round match but lost in the second round then fell in the third round of consolation. Joromat went 0-2 in the tourney.
