The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The Long Beach Poly boys’ wrestling team has been chasing history.
The Jackrabbits finally reached the top of the mountain Thursday night as they defeated Wilson to claim an undefeated Moore League title – their first since 1989.
It was a dominant night for the boys’ team as they won 11 of 13 matches including 10 that came via pin as the Jackrabbits wrote their name in the history books.
“I was talking to my team about how this is the first time since my mom was born basically, that we won the Moore League,” Poly senior Alek Carrera said about the moment. “I’ve only been at Poly for 4 years, obviously, so it’s kind of hard to grasp how long like a 20 year hiatus is, but or I guess the 30, almost 40 year hiatus is. But when I think about it, it’s pretty awesome. And then coming to Wilson, this is what we expected.
We expected all of our wrestlers to win and all of them to go out there and pin, and that’s pretty much what we had. So we know that a shut out isn’t one of the most exciting things, but we didn’t want to come out here and give them a breath of fresh air, you know, let them think they could take the title from us because we think it’s what we deserve, especially after almost 40 years.”
After Wilson’s Dominic Cortez opened the match with a win to give the Bruins a 6-0 lead, Martin Ornelas responded to tie the match for the Jackrabbits.
Poly forfeited the 120-pound match and then junior captain Knox Espinoza went to work coming away with a pin in the opening round.
“It felt good, you know, at the beginning of the season, I said we had a really good team and we had a really good chance of winning,” Espinoza said. “I’m just glad we pulled through and got that win.”
Espinoza’s win started a run of six wins, five that came by pin and included wins by Colin Ornelas, Lincoln Chung, Jayden Ekong, Rocky Lo and Carrera. With a forfeit Poly’s lead was cut to 41-18.
The Jackrabbits wrapped the night with pins by Alberto Olague, Jordan Dizon, Kevin Bennett and Sammy Timu.
It was the finishing touches of a night that started with the Poly girls’ team defeated Wilson 48-35 to claim their third straight Moore League title as they prepare to compete at the Moore League Finals next Thursday.
After an opening-round forfeit, Riley Pestanas and Nicole Comia picked up victories by pin, but Wilson’s Daniela Orozco responded with her own win to cut Poly’s lead to 13-12 after the Jackrabbits were awarded a point due to a jewelry penalty.
Poly Maribel Quezada and Kayla Chalaga gave Poly a 24-11 with back-to-back pins - but two forfeits and a pin victory by Alyssa Pedregon gave Wilson 29-24 lead.
After a pin by Devyn Kripp, Berlynn Solia-Tago and Blessings Iosia pinned their opponents as they pulled away for the victory.
“It feels good, especially being able to go ahead and seal the deal from both the boys and girls together,” Poly coach Ken Lee said. ”And it's something that, you know, most coaches dream about, but for me, you know, I tell the kids the job's not done.”
Long Beach Poly will now turn to the CIF Southern Section Dual meet that will take place on Saturday, Jan. 31. The boys’ team will be at Western for the Division 3 dual while the girls will participate in the Moore League Finals next Thursday before heading to Hillcrest in Riverside next weekend.
The CIF-SS pairings will be released on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m.
