Recent Bronco Team Results

 2009-2010 Broncos!

Week 1: Second place at the Vacaville Duals. The BV team went 8 - 1 in duals on the weekend, with their only loss coming to Vacaville. All-Tourney Team included Grant Burkhalter, Dillon Mueller and Jake Briggs. Wrestlers of the Week: Varsity - Victor Trujillo  /  JV - Alistair Lavin

Week 2: Broncos traveled to the toughest dual tournament in the state - Clovis West Shootout. Seven of the 14 schools in attendance finished in the top 15 in the state last year. The Broncos went 2 - 5 on the weekend, but they wrestled very tough, losing two of the five by 6 points or less. The highlight of the weekend was Shayne Tucker knocking off Chris Knoblock 6 -5; Knoblock is a returning state finalist. Shayne was named to the All-Tournament Team, while Jake Briggs was named outstanding lightweight wrestler. Broncos also won a home dual match over Lincoln HS, losing only one individual match. Wrestler of the Week: Varsity - Shayne Tucker  /  JV - Justin Calderon

Week 3: The BV wrestling team went to the Reno TOC, considered one of the six toughest high school wrestling tournaments in the United States. Ninety-two teams competed from all over the states; Pennsylvania, Alaska, New Mexico, Utah, New Jersey, Arizona and Oklahoma to name a few. No school had more than 5 wrestlers medal, so even the top teams in the U.S. had a tough time getting wrestlers to medal. Bella Vista had 3 medalists - Jake Briggs took 3rd, Shayne Tucker placed 7th, and Landon Burkhalter placed 8th. The BV team placed 32 out of the 92 teams that competed. Wrestler of the Week: Jake Briggs for varsity. JV had no competition.

Weeks 4 & 5: Holiday Break, no competition.

Week 6: On Tuesday the Broncos opened up league competition with a big 59 - 9 win over Mira Loma. The next night we got all we could handle from El Camino. The Broncos jump out to a 36 - 12 lead and hung on to win 36 - 30! Over the weekend the Bronco varsity team split up in two directions. A majority of the team went to the Nor Cal Tournament (near Redding), while a few who couldn't miss school right before finals went to a Saturday only tournament - Calvaras Tournament. At Nor Cal the Broncos placed 8th (out of 49 teams), with Jake Briggs leading the way with a tournament championship win over the number two ranked wrestler in the state at 145 lbs. (Jake is #1 at 140 lbs.). Shayne Tucker had a nice tournament placing second while wrestling up a weight class from his competitive weight of 112 lbs. Other placers were Victor Trujillo placing 4th, David Call placing 5th and Dillon Mueller placing 7th. The other varsity team went to Calavaras and did very well placing 2nd in the team competition. We put four wrestlers in the finals and all came away with wins - Grant Burkhalter, Landon Burkhalter, JP Burke and Jake Delaney. Interesting side note, JP Burke was third on the depth chart at BV, won a wrestle off on Friday to be able to go and ends up winning the tournament! Other medalists included a 3rd by Brian Pederson and a 4th by Jacob Kern. Wrestlers of the Week: Varsity - J.P Burke and Jacob Kern, JV - Quinton Ferguson

Week 7: Broncos really wrestled well this week. We took the very top guys to Los Angeles for the Five Counties Tournament (toughest tournament in California). Bella Vista placed 19th out of the 97 schools that participated. Jake Briggs continued his amazing season by placing first; he even won the championship match 7 - 0. Other strong performances were turned in by Dillon Mueller and David Call, both of which missed a medal by one victory. Shayne Tucker, Landon Burkhalter and Grant Burkhalter all won matches at this tough tournament to help the team place in the top 20. A bunch of other varsity wrestlers went to the Armijo Tournament in Fairfield. Jennifer Page led the way with an impressive performance reaching the finals (of a boys varsity tournament!). Her second place finish was the highest on the team. Victor Trujillo and Sam Fowler also took home medals for the Broncos. We sent a team of 11 wrestlers to this tournament, 5 made the semi-finals, and the team placed 5th. Wrestlers of the Week: Varsity - Dillon Mueller and David Call from Five Counties; Jennifer Page from Armijo.

Week 8: The Broncos attended the Albany Tournament in the Bay Area. A couple starters sat out, but we sent most of our varsity team. The team placed 3rd, which is great considering we left some points off the board not having everyone. Shayne Tucker had a great tournament and ended up our only Champion. Victor Trujillo and Landon Burkhalter also turned in nice performances making the finals and placing second. Other medalists were Jacob Kern placing 3rd, David Call placing 5th, Sam Fowler placing 6th and Jennifer Page placed 7th. Seven medalists, and only one senior - watch out next year! Also this week we beat our league rivals Casa Roble! Final score was 43 - 22 for the win. The jv beat Casa 49 - 10, and Carnegie beat Pasteur at the junior high level - a great night for the whole Bronco program. Wrestlers of the Week: Varsity - Sam Fowler and JV - Brian Pederson.

Week 9: Broncos are Capital Athletic League Champions!!! Bella Vista beat Rio Americano 65 - 6 on Tuesday, our only loss being an injury default. Then on Thursday we beat Del Campo 59 - 21 to make it official. The JV team also went undefeated in league to win the league title as well. This was nice, and we'll take it, but our team goals are still a week away - Section Duals!

Week 10: The Bella Vista Broncos are Section Champions again!!! For the first time in over 25 years, a section title has found a home the Bronco wrestling program. BV was seeded #1 and had a first round bye. So BV opened up with a 51 - 18 win over Pioneer HS, champions of the Tri-County league. In the finals the Broncos did it again with another big 54 - 18  over Solano County Athletic Conference champion Rodriques HS win to win the Team Duals Section Championship. There were no specific stand out performances, the entire team wrestled great from top to bottom, a true "team" victory.

Week 11: Broncos dominate the league tournament placing 9 wrestlers in the finals, with 6 coming out champions. There are 14 weight classes and the Broncos qualified 12 wrestlers to the next round of the playoffs - Division III Section Tournament. Capital Athletic League Champions included Victor Trujillo, Grant Burkhalter, Shayne Tucker, Jake Briggs, Dillon Mueller, and David Call. Sam Fowler, Quintin Ferguson and Robert Gourlay all made the finals as well.

Week 12: Bella Vista Wrestling wins it's second Section Championship this season - winning the Division III Section Tournament Championship. Wrestling is the only sport where you can win two section titles in one season, one for the dual championship, and one for the tournament championship - the Broncos won them both. Bella Vista finished with 213 points, to second place El Camino's 166 points. Individual Section Champions included Victor Trujillo, Grant Burkhalter, Shayne Tucker and Jake Briggs. The Broncos sent 12 wrestlers to this tournament and 10 qualified on to the Masters Championships next weekend - a great team effort. Heavyweight Tim Rocha shocked them all coming back from a broken hand to place 3rd this weekend. Robert Gourlay and Jacob Kern had to beat guys they had lost to earlier in order to qualify on, both got pins!!! While not everything went our way this weekend, the Broncos came on strong in the end with nearly everyone winning their last match. Another big finish was turned in by Jennifer Page. Jennifer placed 4th and qualified for Masters, putting her in very rare company of girls making the Masters Tournament. I'll have to do some research and see if she's the firt, or how many have actually done that. I would bet money that she's the first girl beyond 103 or 112 lbs. to make it - meaning she most likely had to wrestle mostly junior and senior boys to make it, rather than lighter weights which are mostly filled with freshman and sophomores. On a side note, qualifying 10 wrestlers for Masters is a personal record for me as coach at Bella Vista. This happened because of Mark Tucker, Dana Smith, Kirk Bebout, David Rivas, Matt Vigna and Jon Perriera - all great coaches and people!

Week 13: Another "WOW" week. The Masters Championships every year are an emotional rollercoaster, and this year was no exception. We start our championships off with three wins in a row, each one with bonus points for pins or major decision victories. We suffer our first loss, then bounce back with another win by pin. Things are going well for the Broncos. Then Dillon Mueller (winning 7 - 0) suffers a season ending knee injury. An odds on favorite to be wrestling next week at the state championships, and he's out - rip your heart out moment for our team. Then we lose the next five matches in a row! One of our team goals this year was to place in the top five at Masters. The loss of Dillon for the year, and loss of other matches, it looked as if those dreams were dead. Bella Vista came roaring back though, and by the end of the day, five of the ten qualifiers were still in for day two - three in the semi finals. Day two was more of the same. The first round saw BV lose two of the three semi finals, and David Call lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds ending his run. Par for the course though, we came roaring back with huge wins in the rounds to get to medals. When the dust settled we had three wrestlers wrestling for 3rd, and one for 1st place. All those consolation round wins moved the team from a respectable 7th place, to a goal achieving 5th place in the team standings. Jake Briggs ending up winning his third Masters Championship, putting him in very rare air in the history of our section. Jake only gave up two points the whole tournament, and those points were scored after he had built up a 13 - 0 lead in the match. Victor Trujillo capped off a big tournament with a third place, while Grant Burkhalter and Shayne Tucker placed fourth. The team secured 5th place, making that the highest Bella Vista finish in 19 years! Of the five teammates that scored points this weekend, four come back next year, plus Dillon Mueller.

Week 14: Like every year, playoffs have highs and lows. The greater the stakes, the greater the highs and lows are. There are over 800 high schools in California. There are nearly 300 high schools that qualify at least one wrestler to the state championships. Last year the Broncos placed 29th, our highest finish in 20 years. This year our goal was the top 20, and we placed 22. A great showing, as we creep into the upper tier of California wrestling teams, but a little short of our goal. This was how are team did, and it represents how our individuals did at state as well. The wrestlers did a great job, I think each one fell a tiny bit short of where they wanted to be. Jake Briggs was ranked #1 in the state, but a 4 - 5 loss in the semi's ended that hunt. Jake only had one goal all year, and while he fell to 3rd place (for the second year in a row), he did a great job rebounding mentally and got the job done to place third. Jake finished the season with only two losses, by a total of 5 points. Shayne Tucker made it to day two and wrestled in a match to medal, but fell short. Shayne went 4 - 2 at state as a freshman, a great job. Victor Trujillo, another freshman, went 3 - 2 at state - including an amazing come from behind pin with under 15 seconds left in the match. Victor's "never say die" attitude will serve him well the next time around. Grant Burkhalter hoped to improve on last years performance, and while he wrestled close matches, he wasn't able to move up towards medals. Grant is only a junior, expect a very determined senior next year at state.

Conclusion: Reflecting upon the season, Bella Vista Wrestling had a great year. Perfection is impossible, so this week we reflect on where we fell a little short; but in the weeks and months ahead, we will refect on a wonderful season. At the beginning of the season our team sat down and wrote down team goals for the season. They were: jv league champions, varsity league champions, varsity section duals champions, varsity section tournament champions, top 5 at masters, and top 20 at state. Here is what we did now that it's over: jv league champions, varsity league champions, varsity section duals champions, varsity section tournament champions, top 5 at masters, 22nd in the state!!!!

TIME TO RAISE THE BAR!!!!