Under the direction of new head coach Dustin Kirk, the Cerritos College men's wrestling team opened with three wins at the Bakersfield Duals on Saturday. Kirk, who spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach, also runs the women's program, and have won the last three 3C2A State Championships. The men's team looks to follow suit, as they opened with wins over Victor Valley College (34-13), Bakersfield College (54-6) and Lemoore College (38-9). The team will take a week off before competing in the Lemoore Tournament.

Cerritos vs. Victor Valley: Getting their first action of the season, the Falcons wasted little time, as sophomore 125-pound Jesse Hernandez (Santa Fe HS) registered a pin in 6:19 after opening up a 15-4 lead, thanks to five takedowns. Freshman 141-pound Isaac Gonzalez (Western HS) kept things going with his 9-4 win before sophomore Sean Otero (Norwalk HS) broke a scoreless tie in the third period with an escape, takedown and 3:10 of riding time for a 5-0 win at 149 pounds. The wins kept coming, as sophomore 157-pound Noah Zuniga (Trabuco Hills HS) jumped out to a 13-2 first period lead before capping off the match with a pin in 2:27. At 174 pounds, freshman Abraham Galicia (St. John Bosco HS) dominated his opponent and posted a 16-1 technical fall before sophomore Farzad Hashimi (El Dorado HS) recorded a second period pin after opening a 15-2 first period advantage at 184 pounds. The final win in the match came from freshman 197-pound Brian Valdespino (Downey HS), who scored 16 points in the first period for his technical fall victory.

Cerritos vs. Bakersfield: Against the Renegades, the Falcons won the first nine weights, with eight of them by pin, while the other was a forfeit. Hernandez won his second match of the day, as he needed 2:40 to record his pin, with Flores winning in 6:00. Other winners by pin include Gonzales in 2:00 at 141 pounds, Otero in 2:40 at 149 pounds, Zuniga at 157 pounds in 2:11, while Galicia needed 1:24 at 174 pounds. Hashimi was shutting out his opponent at 184 pounds before his pin in 3:23, with Valdespino posting his pin right before the buzzer in the second period.

Cerritos vs. Lemoore: A tough 7-6 loss by Hernandez opened the match at 125 pounds before the Falcons ran off eight straight wins to post the comfortable win. Flores earned five team points with his 17-2 win, as he needed less than a period to earn his win. Seeing his first action of the day, sophomore Imanuel Flores (Santa Fe HS) posed an 8-0 win at 141 pounds, with Otero following with a first period pin at 149 pounds to finish the day, 3-0. Zuniga matched the 3-0 record with his pin after jumping out to a 12-1 lead in the second period at 157 pounds. Freshman Marcel Blake (South Torrance HS) opened a 6-0 first period lead at 165 pounds and took an 8-6 lead into the third period, where a takedown concluded the scoring in an 11-6 win. Galicia (174 pounds), Hashimi (184 pounds) and Valdespino (197 pounds) all won their third matches of the day, with two of them by pin.

The Falcons also competed in four "B" matches and earned two wins over Bakersfield and Lemoore.

Photos courtesy of Matin Ghanavat / IG: @Blackcatsocials