Prep Wrestling: Titans’ Doyle, Tovar capture state titles

Colt Doyle is a state champion again.

And this time the Poway High senior had a teammate to celebrate with at Saturday’s CIF State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

Doyle capped off a perfect 46-0 season by repeating as the 160-pound state champion. He wasn’t the only Titan to reach the top of the podium, as senior Ralphy Tovar polished off his illustrious career by winning the 145-pound state title.

It is the first time Poway has had two state champions in the same season since 2009, when Ian Daube and Henry Yorba accomplished the feat.

Doyle joined Poway legends Brody Barrios and Paul Baird as the only Titans to capture two state titles (Barrios did it in 1999-2000 and Baird in 2002-2003).

“It is hard to wrap my head around it all,” Doyle said via phone Sunday night. “It is really cool that all the hard work that I have been putting in since I was a kid — and the hard work of my teammates and coaches and family with me — paid off. It has never been done before like that and I thank God for letting me do that. My teammates deserve just as much credit as me. I wouldn’t be where I am without them.”

Poway coach Wayne Branstetter expressed his satisfaction of getting to watch Doyle and Tovar win state titles in their final season.

“I am really going to miss those kids,” he said. “But I get the rest of my life to look on the board and see Colt Doyle and Ralphy Tovar are state champions. That gets etched into the history books and will always put a smile on my face.”

The Titans had a school-record nine placers and scored a school-record 189.5 points, but still fell short of Clovis for the team title (previous Poway record was 160 set in 2005). The Cougars broke their own tournament-scoring record of 256.5 points, finishing with 276.5 points on the way to their fifth straight title. Poway finished in second for the sixth time in school history.

“It is mixed emotions, but I am completely satisfied by the team’s performance,” Branstetter said of breaking two school records yet still finishing second to Clovis. “You can’t ask for more than what they did. Typically, when you get to the playoffs there is more heartache than jubilation, but in this case we had a lot more celebration with nine out of 13 kids placing.”

Doyle’s run to his second state crown was nothing short of magnificent. He won his first four matches by pin, the second of which gave him a school-record 47 straight wins. Doyle then breezed through the semifinals, winning 10-1.

But he may have saved his best performance for last. Doyle collected his 51st straight victory and 46th of the season with a 12-5 win over No. 2 in the state, Folsom’s Lorenzo De La Riva. Doyle never trailed and celebrated his second title with a back flip on the mat.

“It was the first time I really celebrated all season,” Doyle said. “It was a spur of the moment thing. I wanted to do something cool since it was my last high school match. I wanted to make it memorable.”

Tovar (43-2) was just as dominant as Doyle en route to his first state title. He registered pins in three of his first four matches — the one that was not a pin he won by forfeit — and then edged Santiago High’s Jeremy Thomas 3-2 in the semifinal.

Tovar also never trailed in his final against No. 2 in the state, Zander Wick of San Marino High. He got a single-leg takedown in the first and got an escape in the second to take a 3-0 lead. He went up 5-0 and when the clock hit zeros dropped to the mat and flexed his muscles in celebration.

“When the clock expired I honestly felt like it was just another match,” Tovar said. “Then I realized where I was and I had to take a knee and look up. It was just great to let it sink in.”

There were a pair of other local wrestlers that fell just short of reaching the final. Rancho Bernardo sophomore Chasen Blair and Poway’s Andrew Tausch were both within a win of reaching the state title match at 182 pounds. But both fell in the semifinals and ended up meeting in the fifth-place match, where Blair pinned Tausch in overtime.

Blair is the first Bronco to place at state since Jonathan Beck (171 pounds) took eighth in 2010. The best showing at state by a Rancho Bernardo wrestler came in 2004, when Nathaniel Skaggs took fourth.

Other state placers for Poway were: Chris Bailey (195, fourth), Liam Sorahan (220, fifth), Manny Lair (132, sixth), Chase Zollmann (106, seventh), DJ Garcia (138, seventh) and Brandon Kier (120, eighth).