Wrestling: Tellez second, Rio Hondo finishes eighth at State Championship

Led by a runner up showing by Alexis Tellez, the Rio Hondo College wrestling team totaled 53 points to finish in eighth place at the 2021 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) State Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk. The two-day event wrapped up on Saturday evening.

Rio Hondo head coach Mike Tellez has guided the Roadrunners to seven consecutive top-15 team finishes at the state championships. The Roadrunners' eighth-place team finish was the program's best since a seventh-place showing at the 2011 state championships.

All four of the Roadrunners' qualifiers for the 2021 state championships went on to place among the top seven to score points.

Tellez, the South's No. 2 seed at the 125-pound weight division, went 2-0 to reach the state final. After a first-round bye, he defeated Rio Hondo teammate Victor Atherton by technical fall (16-1) in the quarterfinals and edged Mt. San Antonio College's Connor Diamond 6-5 in the semis to advance to the championship match.

Tellez faced off against Jonathan Prata of Cerritos College in the final. The two also met in the Southern California Championship with Prata coming out on top in that one. Tellez couldn't pull off the upset and lost by a final score of 9-1 to finish in second place.

By placing among the state's top four, Tellez earned All-American honors.

Atherton, also at 125 pounds, reached the fifth-place match but suffered a 10-7 loss Austin Pimentel of Fresno City College to finish in sixth place overall.

Donovan Sanin reached the seventh-place match at 149 pounds and won by fall at the 1:35 mark over Everado Rueda of Bakersfield College.

At 157 pounds, Adrian Rios advanced to the fifth-place match where he was defeated 8-3 by Palomar College's Gavin Kaminski to end in sixth place.

Mt. San Antonio College won the team state championship with 167 points, followed by host Cerritos in second with 138.5 points and Fresno City College in third at 107.5 points.