HOLTVILLE, CA. – The 57th annual Holtville Rotary tournament was a special one for the Rancho Bernardo wrestling team as the one-two-punch of Jaden Le and Tyler Badgett became the first teammates to win the tournament in four occasions on the same year.
Le, the No. 2 ranked wrestler in California at 145-pounds, put a takedown clinic in the finals as he recorded the 15-5 win over two-time Arizona state medalist Anthony Morales of Kofa High. Prior to the finals, Le had four falls with the fastest fall coming in 48 seconds. Due to his performance, Le was chosen as the MVP in the lower weights.
Le won his first tournament title as a freshman at 120-pounds by defeating current Cal Poly 125-pound starter Benny Martinez 7-2 in the finals. During his sophomore campaign, Le once again defeated Martinez in the finals 7-4. Last year, Le won his third title by defeating Christian Navida (San Marcos) 4-1.
Out of the 21 bouts he has competed in the four years at Holtville, Le won 17 of them via bonus points.
His Teammate Badgett was the champion at 152-pounds as he got the 15-0 technical fall over No. 2 seed Omar Rosas of Central Union. Just like his teammate Le, Badgett also pinned all the other opponents he faced in the tournament.
Badgett won his first tournament title at 132-pounds by defeating current Oklahoma A&M College wrestler Jayden Smith 11-2. In his sophomore season, Badgett blanket Kymani Yambao (San Marcos) 7-0. Last year, Badgett won his third tournament title by defeating Nicholas Steele (San Pasqual )5-3. Just like Le, out of the 21 matches he won at this event, 17 were won via bonus points.
As a team, Rancho Bernardo won the team title for the fourth consecutive time with 349.5 points with 13 place winners and individual champions in Nikko Beato (106), Brandon Eusebio (113), and Javen Jovero at 182-pounds.