4 section champs set Selma among elite. Buchanan has 4, too, motoring toward state

Take down the sign.

Raisin Capital of the World, no more. May Selma be known as the Little Wrestling Program That Keeps Keeping Up.

Selma High won four individual titles at the Central Section Masters on Friday, showing Buchanan and the rest of Clovis Unified that the country mice from down south can hang with the city slickers just the same.

“Yeah, I think we’re on the map,” said Tristan Lujan, a fourth-generation Selman and fourth Masters champion in his family tree.

Buchanan, of course, won its fourth straight Masters team championship (ninth overall since 1996), because that’s just what they do these days. You’ll read all about the Bears next weekend when they defend their state championship in Bakersfield.

For a night, though, it was Selma wrestlers hogging attention on the two championship mats at Lemoore High.

It began with Richard Figueroa, the top-ranked 108-pound wrestler in California, taking down Buchanan’s Jack Gioffre 12-3. Lujan, ranked first in the state at 115, then finished the tag-team job with a 5-1 win over Buchanan’s Carlos Negrete Jr.

On the upper weight mat next door, it was Christian Rodriguez holding off Monache’s Mark Caldwell 4-3. Then, it was top-ranked Jace Luchau calling it a night with an 8-2 victory over Clovis’ Max Anderson at 154.

How’s that for small-town wrestling?

“These guys are like my own family,” Lujan said. “We’re a tight-knit community. We’ve been together since elementary school. We went through club wrestling together, we’ve known each other since we were kids.

“Richard, that’s my partner. We go at it every day in the wrestling room, we scrap hard every day. But when all the hard knocks are done, we’re still brothers.”

That’s why Figueroa didn’t take 2 seconds to celebrate his Masters victory. Rather, he threw on a warmup jacket and sat legs-crossed in the coach’s corner to watch Lujan take on Negrete. Figueroa stayed in the exact same spot to yell encouragement to Jacob Rivera, who lost the 122-pound final to Buchanan’s Maximo Renteria.

The Selma Bears know the Buchanan Bears are the team to beat, one of the best in the nation. Selma understands it lacks the team depth to keep up with Buchanan’s two-deep in the team standings.

That’s what makes the individual victories so meaningful. They may not take down Buchanan as a whole, but Friday showed Selma could get in a few good licks.

“If you go out there with a good mindset, and a good plan, it all works out,” Figueroa said.

Buchanan: 4 individual champs

Buchanan’s game plan is to keep winning until it can’t lose. Those Bears also had four individual champions – Renteria, Tyler Dean (140), Matt Olguin (162) and Jadon Martin (197)

You’ll excuse Buchanan for not getting too down about two titles lost to Selma, or too excited about yet another team title. When you are the three-time defending state champions, the biggest celebrations are saved for the biggest stage, which is to say check back with them next week.

“You don’t want to act like it doesn’t matter because you’ve done it with other groups, but this group hasn’t done it yet,” Buchanan coach Troy Tirapelle said. “This group hasn’t done it before, so it’s still important to us.”

Buchanan outscored runner-up Clovis 307-272. Clovis North, Bakersfield and Selma rounded out the top five.

Other local champions included Lemoore’s Wayne Joint (128), Clovis North’s Ryan Franco (134), Bullard’s Dawson Sihavong (147) and Clovis’ Jacob Good (222).

LINK: Central Section Masters brackets

LINK: Central Section Masters place winners

LINK: Central Section Masters team scores

The top-10 finishers in each weight class advanced to the State Championships, Thursday through Saturday in Bakersfield.

This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 8:55 PM.