Wrestling: Rio Hondo places three at State Championships, finishes 13th

Thanks to three top-eight individual finishes, Rio Hondo College wrapped up the 2016 season by taking 13th place in the final team standings at the California Community College Athletic Association Wrestling State Championship. The two-day event ran Dec. 9-10 at Victor Valley College in Victorville.

Leading the way for the Roadrunners was Andrew Ramos at 197 pounds as he finished in fourth place to earn All-American honors.

The freshman from Mayfair High School picked up a 19-4 technical fall over Ben Sira of Chabot College in the quarterfinals before dropping an 11-7 decision to Kalvin Stuckey of Fresno City College in the semifinals. Ramos bounced back for a 17-6 major decision over Zack Mitchell of Bakersfield in the consolation semifinals but ultimately lost 15-5 to Wes Ruffer of Lassen Community College in the consolation final/third-place match.

Just a week earlier, Ramos earned a second-place finish at the Southern California Regional Championships.

Earning eight-place finishes at the State Championships for the Roadrunners were freshmen Josh Garo (Upland HS) at 149 pounds and Marco Valdivia (South Hills HS) at 285.

Garo went 2-2 at the state finals, winning his opening match by pin fall at 2:12 over Blake Boswell of Santa Rosa Junior College while defeating Andrew Alvares of West Hills by a 9-2 decision. Valdivia was a 7-3 winner over Gabriel Cardona of Chabot in a match that propelled him to the seventh-place final.

At the SoCal Regionals, Garo brought home a fifth-place finish while Valdivia was sixth.

As a squad, Rio Hondo totaled 24.5 points at the State Championships. Fresno City won its 14th state title overall after scoring 158.5 team points.