High School Wrestling: Jayden Autry and Charles King capture titles at Amaral tourney

The third time proved to be the charm for Granite Hills’ Jayden Autry as he finally reached the top of the podium at the 16th annual Adrian Amaral Scholarship Invitational on Jan. 6.

Autry captured the 132-pound title at the two-day tournament, hosted by Silverado High School. It was his third time competing at the annual tournament, which he called his favorite of the wrestling season.

“The overall environment and energy is always exciting,” Autry said after scoring a 6-0 decision over Landen Cordrey, of Temecula Valley, for the 132-pound title. “It was a little sad saying goodbye to the Amaral family since I'm graduating but I know there's greater things to come in college and eventually my MMA career.”

The annual wrestling tournament is dedicated to Adrian Amaral, who died in a traffic collision in 2004, only a week after graduating from Silverado. Amaral was a standout at baseball, football and wrestling in his four years at the school.

As a sophomore, Autry failed to place in the tournament, and last year as a junior he took third place at 138 pounds.

“This being my senior year, I took some serious time to fix my mistakes and drop to the 132 weight class where I feel my best at,” Autry said. “I wrestled some tough opponents and all matches went my way, with two pins, one major and one decision. It felt absolutely amazing to win the Amaral tournament and see my friends at Granite Hills compete and learn.”

Autry began the tournament with a bye, and then pinned Serrano's Dylan DeLeon at the 3:14 mark. He followed that up with a 15-1 majority decision over Barstow's Abdon Rodriguez to reach the semifinals.

Autry pinned Highland's Jarrod Mendoza at the 3:38 mark in the semifinals.

But he wasn’t the only local wrestler to capture a title as Oak Hills’ Charles King scored a 6-2 decision over Brandon Saldana, of Eisenhower, for the 215-pound title.

“It felt amazing because it was a good matchup between me and Brandon Saldana,” King said. “He is a strong and great wrestler. I can’t wait for the next time.”

King began the day with a pinfall in 14 seconds, and then pinned Apple Valley's Troy Cisneros at the 4:17 mark. He picked up two more victories, including an 8-3 decision over Adelanto's Daylen Bell in the semifinals.

Two of King’s teammates also made runs to title matches, but fell short against a pair of Temecula Valley wrestlers. At 175 pounds, Isaiah Sandoval lost by pinfall to Kameron Phillips, while Dominic Tamayo also lost by pinfall to Gabriel Lemos at 150 pounds.

Tamayo won four matches, including three by pinfall, and Sandoval won three matches to reach the title match.

A pair of Adelanto wrestlers also lost to Temecula Valley teammates in title matches. Eric Castaneda lost a 1-0 decision to Noah Watkins for the 190-pound title, and Prince Norris lost by pinfall to Ashton Lassig at 165 pounds.

Casteneda won four matches to reach the title match, including two by pinfall, while Norris won three matches, including two by pinfall.

Apple Valley's Tyler Mulford lost a technical fall to Ciaden Meyers-Medina, of Rancho Cucamonga, in the 120-pound title match.

Temecula Valley dominated the tournament with 338 total team points, while Birmingham finished in second place with 252.5 points.

Temecula Valley’s Justice El Sayad earned the Heavyweight MVP, while Eisenhower’s Mathius Garza took the Middleweight MVP and Birmingham’s Henry Aslikyan captured the Lowerweight MVP.

All three wrestlers earned $1,000 scholarships for being named MVPs.

Here’s a look at the rest of the placers from local high schools, separated by schools and their finishes as a team.

4. Hesperia (196.5)

Devin Garcia, 4th place, 106 pounds; Dylan Garcia, 3rd place, 113 pounds; Brandon Garcia, 6th place, 120 pounds; Landin Arguelles, 4th place, 126 pounds; Stone Torres, 4th place, 138 pounds; Joshua Hernadnez, 4th place, 144 pounds; Loghan Zuniga, 5th place, 157 pounds; Max Stevenson, 4th place, 165 pounds; Aiden Valencia, 5th place, 165 pounds; Dane Holm, 6th place, 190 pounds; Ronald Lamas, 4th place, 215 pounds.

5. Adelanto (185)

Omar Tavira, 5th place, 120 pounds; Emmanuel Flores-Benitez, 5th place, 132 pounds; Brandon Allen, 6th place, 144 pounds; Julian Haughton, 6th place, 175 pounds; Daylen Bell, 3rd place, 215 pounds.

6. Serrano (176)

Nathan Villalobos, 4th place, 113 pounds; Kole Crafton, 8th place, 120 pounds; Gilbert Vasquez, 3rd place, 138 pounds; Matthew Lamb, 3rd place, 144 pounds; Alex Alfonso, 7th place, 165 pounds; Gabriel Contreras-Lopez, 3rd place, 175 pounds; Noah Almquist, 5th place, 215 pounds; Marcus Ochoa, 4th place, 285 pounds.

7. Oak Hills (170.5)

Jaeden Vaughner, 8th place, 144 pounds; Max Waller, 8th place, 165 pounds; Leo Lopez, 8th place, 285 pounds.

10. Granite Hills (97)

Jack Hood, 8th place, 106 pounds; Daniel Nicholson, 7th place, 120 pounds; Pablo Castelan, 7th place, 126 pounds.

11. Apple Valley (94.5)

Korbin Hoye, 5th place, 113 pounds; Joshua Guffey, 8th place, 150 pounds; Trevor Bailey, 4th place, 157 pounds; Nicholas Powell, 7th place, 285 pounds.

12. Victor Valley (94)

Hector Rodriguez, 6th place, 132 pounds; Alex Soltero, 4th place, 150 pounds; Corey Brantley, 7th place, 150 pounds; Shaun Morales, 7th place, 175 pounds; John Venegas, 8th place, 175 pounds; Isaiah Higuera, 8th place, 215 pounds.

14. Sultana (87.5)

Noah Villatoro, 6th place, 138 pounds; Ryan Kruger, 5th place, 144 pounds; Jacob Gunn, 5th place, 150 pounds; Eduardo Cano-Lopez, 7th place, 190 pounds.

18. Barstow (51.5)

Abdon Rodriguez, 8th place, 132 pounds; Quentin Hunter, 5th place, 285 pounds.

21. Excelsior (38)

Robert Cardoza, 6th place, 126 pounds; Antonio Avila, 7th place, 157 pounds.

24. Silverado (27)

Kayleb Gomez, 5th place, 175 pounds.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: High School Wrestling: Autry and King capture titles at Amaral tourney