Entering nine competitors in the East LA Brawl on Saturday, the Cerritos College wrestling team had five of them finish in the top four, as the team finished in fourth place. The Falcons compiled 64.5 team points from their nine entries and will now take a week off to prepare for the Southern California Regional Championships, which will take place at Lemoore College.

Leading the way for Cerritos was freshman 157-pound Marcel Blake (South Torrance HS), who defeated three opponents to win the championship. After receiving a bye in the first round, he posted a 16-0 technical fall win over Saul Escalante of Palomar College, which was followed by another technical fall win. Blake needed less than two periods to take an 18-1 victory over Justin Ayala of Victor Valley College, which sent him into the finals against freshman teammate Chris Mattar (University HS). In his three matches to reach the finals, Mattar opened by pinning Camden Williams of Bakersfield College in 5:56. That was followed by a 6-4 win over Victor Valley's Vicente Tizoc. Mattar took a 4-1 lead in the second period with a four-point near fall and added a pair of escape points in the third period to seal the victory. He then defeated Everardo Gonzalez of Victor Valley, 16-1 to advance to the championship match.

It took Blake, who was named the Most Valuable Lower Weight Wrestler (pictured, left) just 1:04 to pin Mattar, who recorded a takedown a little over a minute into the first period and then earned the pin quickly thereafter.

At 197 pounds, sophomore Dennis Iraheta (University HS) picked up wins over Cash Cancel of Bakersfield by pin in 3:24, while a 12-3 major victory over Nick Garris of Palomar advanced him to the championships. Taking on Chance Evans of Cuesta College, Iraheta was pinned in 4:02 and finished in second place. Iraheta was trailing, 8-0 at the time of the pin. Teammate Brian Valdespino (Downey HS) suffered the same fate against Evans in the second round, but he rebounded with a pair of wins to come in third place. In the third place match, Valdespino shut out Garris, 8-0.

Also placing for the Falcons was sophomore Donovan Chavez (Downey HS), who came in fourth place at 165 pounds. He opened with an 11-1 win, but then suffered a 15-2 major decision loss to Giancarlo Tolentino of Palomar in his next match. Three consecutive major decision wins advanced Chavez to the third place match, including a 22-10 victory over Farzad Mohammadi of Palomar to get to that match. He squared off against Tolentino once again and dropped an 8-3 decision.