By Rob Sherrill

The Walsh Ironman Invitational represents a start to the wrestling season like no other. In addition to providing the most consistently high-level competition of any regular-season event, it constitutes the most significant individual and team rankings event for much of the regular season.

            What else can be said about an event in which more than half the nation’s No. 1 wrestlers will compete?

            But while the Ironman — which will be held Dec. 11-12, at Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio — starts the season, it surely doesn’t end it. The tournament that could have the most impact on what follows it might take place not next month, but next year — nearly four months from the time you read this.

            It is the Central Section state qualifying tournament in California, which will be contested on the final weekend in February. California’s state tournament, — see page 74 for details of every state’s tourney —  will be contested March 5-6 at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

            Incidentally, Bakersfield is part of the Central Section, and seemed to help provide a home-mat advantage for the section’s wrestlers last year. (More on that later.)

            Al Fontes, the veteran observer who likely knows more about wrestling in the Golden State than anyone alive, supplied some very insightful pre-season material that sets up the Central Section tournament — a.k.a, the “Showdown in the Valley” — as the state tournament, round one.

            Last year, we mentioned the tight cross-town showdowns between Valley cross-town rivals Clovis High and Buchanan High, with both teams spending considerable amounts of time in WIN’s Top 25 (see page 12). But the stakes will be higher this year.

            The Central Section contains five of the state’s top seven teams in pre-season state rankings. In addition to Buchanan and Clovis, which open in the 1-2 spots, Selma High, one of the state’s top teams recently, Fresno Clovis West and Bakersfield also are highly-ranked teams in the section.

            Among the Central Section standouts: Buchanan senior Martin Fabbian (145), the state runner-up at 152 last season, who leads four returning Bears state place-winners; sophomore state champion Alex Cisneros (112) and junior two-time state place-winner Nick Pena (135) of Selma; Bakersfield junior Bryce Hammond (160), a state place-winner and the NHSCA National Sophomores champion; and junior state runner-up Steven Knoblauch (112) and senior two-time state place-winner Zach Zimmer (119) of Clovis West.

            Still, the question remains: With six nationally-ranked wrestlers in the Central Section, along with 29 returning state qualifiers and 19 place-winners, will any of those teams be able to advance enough wrestlers to the state tournament to take the team title? Or will the sectional tournament result in a bloodbath that strips even the primary contenders of the match winners each might need to contend?

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