Morro Bay High wrestler Shea Dawson, pictured at the center of the podium, won the CIF Central Section Div. III Championship, held Feb. 14-15 at Morro Bay High School. He is flanked by the other seven medal winners in the 138-pound weight class. Submitted photo
In what’s believed to be the first time in Morro Bay High School history, the Pirates have two CIF Champion wrestlers — one boy and one girl.
MBHS wrestling coach, Albert Garza, said his No. 1 wrestler, Shea Dawson, a senior, won the CIF Central Section Div. III Championship in the CIF tournament held Friday-Saturday, Feb. 14-15 at Morro Bay High School.
Dawson won the 138-pound weight class title, going 4-0 for the tournament and dominating each of his foes.
“Shea was pretty dominating,” Coach Garza said. “He won his matches by an average of over 15 points. His longest match lasted a couple of seconds into the second period.”
Dawson is no stranger to winning CIF, as Coach Garza explained he was runner up in his freshman and junior years and won CIF in his sophomore and now his senior years of school.
And college coaches took notice, as the coach explained that Dawson had been getting recruiting calls from lots of college coaches until earlier this year when he signed a commitment letter to attend San Francisco State University in the fall.
Dawson is riding a wave this year, as he also took Third Place at MBHS’ California Invitational Tournament in January. Earning a medal at C.I.T. is not easy, as the tournament attracts many of the best wrestlers in the state.
“Our tournament has grown over the years,” Coach Garza said. “There are a lot of tough competitors here.”
Dawson was the only MBHS boy’s wrestler to take home a medal at the CIF Sectionals. Dawson will now compete in the Central Section Master’s Tournament where the top wrestlers from all the divisions compete against each other.
The Master’s Meet was slated for Feb. 21-22 at Fresno’s Selland Arena with the top finishers there qualifying for the State Meet Finals set for Feb. 27-March 1 at the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.
Having a wrestler make the State Finals is rare for Morro Bay, which has but one State Champion in its history. Craig Troxler won the State Championship at 165 pounds way back in 1976.
The Lady Pirate wrestlers did the boys two — possibly three — better.
Coach Garza said Chelsea Catalan won CIF in the 135-pound weight class at CIF Sectionals, which were held at Miramonte High in Bakersfield, also on Feb. 14-15.
The girls’ team competes in Div. II in the Central Section, he explained. Catalan took First Place and two of her teammates will also be at the next level of competition at the Masters Meet.
Sisters, Ashliegh and Ahlexis Terry each took second in the 130s and 145s respectively, qualifying them to wrestle on.
And Abby Tuller finished high enough to be an alternate in the 140s, so if one of the other competitor from the Div. II can’t compete for whatever reason, she would get her shot on the mat.
The girls’ Masters Meet will also be held at Selland Arena, coach Garza said, so they won’t have to split up their teams.
The Pirates grapplers didn’t fare too well in league play this season, as they didn’t have enough wrestlers to fill every weight class and forfeited too many matches to win dual meets.
“Our duals team is small,” he said, “so we give up a lot of forfeits. We just can’t win in dual meets.”
The issue is the same for both the boys and girls squads. MBHS is also a small school overall, and there are a lot of kids at who don’t want to play sports.
Coach Garza also has to compete for athletes with the basketball and soccer programs. And, “we have a lot of 1-sport athletes,” he explained.
While wrestling is perhaps the best example of an individual sport, dual meets are scored as a team and when a team can’t fill a weight class, it forfeits points on the team score.
