FCC Dominates Bill Musick Open Wrestling Tournament

In its fifth year, the commemorative Bill Musick Wrestling Open was held at the Fresno City College gym on Nov. 4. The Rams had five finalists and together with Fresno State they had the most finalists in the tournament.

The Bill Musick Open tournament is held in memory of former FCC wrestling and football coach Bill Musick. The tournament is an open and allows unattached wrestlers and four-year universities to sign up.

With 10 weight classes wrestling and over 10 schools that attended, the competition was going to be tough.

FCC had 125-pounder Brandon Betancourt face Alex Hernandez-Figueroa of CSUB in the finals. Betancourt battled in a tough match, but was defeated by Hernandez-Figueroa in the third period. Betancourt placed second and in the same weight class Jacob Delgado placed sixth.

In the 133 pound weight class, FCC’s Isiah Perez faced Fresno State’s Gary Joint in the final bout. Perez went all three periods toe-to-toe with Joint, but ultimately lost and took second place.

At the 141 pound weight class final, FCC’s Aaron Mora wrestled Chris Deloza from Fresno State. Mora had the advantage in the early periods, but lost it in the last period giving Deloza the win and Mora second place. Other placers in the weight class from FCC were Abraham Del Toro who placed third, and Mario Martinez who placed sixth.

One of the most exciting matches of the tournament came when Dylan Martinez from FCC met Khristian Olivas from Fresno State. The match went all three periods with no clear winner; they both scored one point and so they had to go to an overtime period.

The match continued to be a deadlock, so a second overtime period was needed. Olivas scored an one-point with an escape with less than 30 seconds on the period. Martinez had to get at least one point to tie, but with the clock running out the only option he had was a take-down that would give him two points and the match.

Martinez had just three seconds on the clock when he managed to finally get the elusive takedown that meant he would take home the victory.

Martinez took first place at the 149 pound weight class. He was the only Ram to place in that weight class.

At 157 pounds, Greg Gaxiola from Fresno State took first place and Josh McMillon and Conrad Lopez placed third and fourth respectively for FCC.

In the 165 weight class, FCC’s Victor Vargas took second place, defeated in the final by Fresno State’s Isaiah Hokit. For the 174 weight class, Dominic Kincaid from Fresno State placed first and for FCC Miguel Ruiz placed fifth.

For the 184 weight class, first place went to Chance Solis from Fresno State and FCC’s Jay Johnson took fourth place. At 197, unattached Elder Cruz finished in first place and for the heavyweight class, first place went to Fresno State’s AJ Nevills and for FCC Armando Barcenas placed in third.

“We competed well today,” said head coach Paul Keysaw. “There are a lot of four year colleges here and the best junior colleges here and we performed pretty well.”