Duarte finishes fourth at state

Anthony Duarte lost in the quarterfinals Saturday at the CIF State wrestling meet, dropping him to the consolation bracket.

But as he has done all season, the Fountain Valley High senior battled back.

He won three straight consolation matches to eventually place fourth in state, and with it become Fountain Valley’s first state placer since Trent Kenney in 1985.

“It was great,” Barons Coach Brad Woodbury said. “He wrestled really good. He lost to the same kid twice, but he beat up everyone else. He just did an awesome job.”

Duarte won his first two matches, defeating Nick Jansen of De La Salle via fall before recording a 17-0 technical fall decision over Rene Medina of Shafter.

Then Duarte loss to Jesse Hellinger of Winters, 13-6, although Woodbury said his wrestler was actually up early.

“I took him down and I was winning,” Duarte said. “Then I messed up a couple of times and he put me to my back.

“I’m pretty happy. I think I could have done better, but I feel like I really accomplished something good.”

In the consolation bracket, Duarte defeated Zach Belway of San Marcos via fall 47 seconds in, then followed it with a thrilling 9-6 victory over Jacob Rodriguez of Canyon Springs.

Woodbury said Duarte scored a late reversal to help win that match.

“That kid’s pretty tough,” Woodbury said.

“That was a big win. We kind of broke him there in the last minutes of the match.”

Duarte then topped Dwight Flores of Tulare Union, 10-3, to earn a rematch with Hellinger in the third-place match. Hellinger won, 7-0.

Duarte will now start preparing for the National High School Coaches Assn. Senior Nationals, which begin April 3 in Virginia Beach, Va. He now has a new goal — to be the first Fountain Valley wrestler to ever place in that meet.

Edison junior Weston Hawkins was the other local to make it to state, and he went 2-2 at 189 pounds. Hawkins defeated Tony Oreglia of Bellarmine, 7-2, before losing to Rodolfo Juarez of Central, 7-4.

Hawkins then topped J.T. Bauman of Dublin, 7-5, before exiting after a 10-5 loss to Brian Orr of Ramona.