It’s something that high school wrestlers and fans look forward to all year. An annual event that sets a tone for the rest of the season: the Zinkin Classic at Buchanan High school.
One of the premier wrestling competitions not just in the state of California but the west coast, the 48-man, true double-elimination varsity tournament has shown to be a stepping stone to great team success.
Thirteen of the last 16 California state team champions participated in the Zinkin Classic.
And the four-time defending state champion Bears looked to showcase that this season will be no different than the past few years.
They did just that, with five Bears wrestlers making the final round of the competition across all 14 weight classes. Additionally, the team accumulated 320.5 points, nearly 100 points more than second-place Allen High from Texas, which had 237. Clovis North and Clovis also finished in the top five with 191 and 182, respectively.
Buchanan’s Raymond Lopez won his matchup with Dominic Mendez from Righetti to capture the 106-pound division championship; Carlos Negrete, California’s No. 2 ranked wrestler in the 120-pound division and No. 7-ranked nationally, lived up that designation with a win by decision over Kade Moore from Allen, Texas.
Logan Gioffre, Kade Campbell and Joseph Martin lost their individual finals matches, but coach Troy Tirapelle was nothing but proud of his athletes and the performances they exhibited.
“It’s a testament to the kids,” Tirapelle said. “We try to treat it as an overall everyone is the same type thing… we’re not trying to run with one, two or three super studs. We want everyone to be the same.”
The Bears added six more wrestlers with third-place finishes, including Jack Gioffre, Regino Raiz, Hunter Leake, Kyler Lake, Reymundo Raiz and Rocco Contino. Jalen Peralta and Zane Rix finished fourth in their weight classes.
But given that the Central Valley is known to be such a hotbed for wrestling, it probably won’t come as a surprise that the winners podium was littered with CUSD wrestlers from other schools.
Clovis North’s Joey Cruz and Ryan Watts won their final-round matches, Mateo Morales of Clovis West took home the top spot in the 220-pound slot and Giano Petrucelli won his 170-pound final against Max Wilner of Fountain Valley.
“I hate to sound arrogant, but [CUSD] has kind of dominated the stage recently and the results would show that,” Tirapelle said. “That’s a great thing. Everyone has to try to rise up to the level we have put on the mat and you just try to stay on top.”
And the Bears, along with the entire CUSD, will indeed get another opportunity to show that they intend to stay on top in just two weeks at the Doc Buchanan Invitational Jan. 3-4 at Clovis High.
The competition is arguably the biggest in the Valley before the playoffs begin, and Tirapelle said that the Zinkin Classic can help prepare for it.
“This is the second toughest tournament that we have on our schedule before the postseason,” Tirapelle said. “It gives some of our kids confidence and it gives other kids things to work on and we build.”