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Photograph by Dick Sparrer
On the Mat: Westmont senior Tom Miller, left, fought his way to a title at 215 pounds at the Ray Andree Memorial wrestling tournament at Westmont.
Westmont fifth in Andree mat tourney
Miller, Gorman pin titles for Warriors
By Dick Sparrer
The late Ray Andree never coached wrestling at Westmont High School.
Still, the veteran coach was well-known around that Campbell campus after a long and illustrious career as a football and wrestling coach at Camden, Branham and Del Mar high schools.
So when Ron Scadina signed on as the head wrestling coach at Westmont, it made perfect sense to him to honor his former high school coach.
Andree passed away a few years ago, and to honor his memory Scadina has set up a scholarship and tournament in his name.
The annual Ray Andree Memorial Tournament was held on the first day of December and kicked off the 2001-02 high school wrestling tournament in the area.
"It's a memorial tournament created to fund our scholarships and honor coach Andree," said Scadina, who wrestled for the veteran coach as a prepster at Del Mar.
And Scadina's Warriors would have made Andree proud with their performance in the Saturday tourney.
Two Westmont wrestlers won individual titles and three made it to the finals to lead the Warriors to a team fifth in the 22-team tourney.
Seniors Tom Miller and Gareth Gorman each finished first in their weight classes and senior Johnny Bauman added a second as the Warriors ran up 149 team points to edge Palma (144) for fifth.
Miller pinned in 1:28 of the first round to claim the individual crown at 215 pounds for the Warriors, and Gorman rolled to an 11-3 victory to ice the title at 170 pounds. Bauman lost a tough 6-3 decision in his last match to wind up second at 140.
Two Prospect wrestlers, Tony Barba and Steve Jones, also made it to the finals at the Andree. Barba pinned at 1:28 of the first round to take the title at 275 pounds, and Jones was second at 135.
Good Start
The fifth-place finish at the Andree was a good start to what Scadina figures will be a good year for his Warriors.
Scadina predicts that Westmont will finish in the top half of the Blossom Valley Athletic League's rugged Mount Hamilton Division and figures his team for a top-six finish at the BVAL finals and a top-10 finish at the Central Coast Section tournament.
He also has high hopes individually for Bauman, Gorman, Miller and Dil Ashraf.
Bauman, the team captain, is coming off of a 31-17 season that included a third-place finish at the league finals. He was second at the Jim Root Classic, fourth in three other tournaments and fifth in another. He posted a 2-2 record at the CCS tourney.
"He should win the BVAL, place in the top two at CCS and place in the top eight at state," said Scadina of Bauman.
The coach also has high expectations for Gorman, who he figures can win BVAL and CCS titles this season.
Gorman rolled up a solid 39-8 record last year that included a second-place finish at the league finals. He finished in two tournaments, third in three more and fifth in another. Gorman was 3-2 at CCS.
The coach is looking for both Miller and Ashraf, a senior heavyweight, to place in the top four at both the league and CCS finals. Miller finished sixth in the league tourney as a junior.
Scadina also has high expectations for Brad Turner, a senior at 145, and Eric Salmans, a junior at 189. He figures that the two will wind up in the top four at the BVAL finals and the top eight at CCS.
Juniors Ryan Kennedy, Matt Meo and sophomores Hiep Dinh, Sergey El-Morshedy, Amy Horowitz and Dean Antolin are other experienced wrestlers returning to the mat for the Warriors this season.
Westmont will jump right into league action this week when the Warriors host powerhouse Silver Creek in a 6:30 p.m. match Dec. 13. Westmont will then head to James Lick Saturday for the Lynn Dyche Tournament.
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Campbell, California
