History was made for the Valencia wrestling program after two Vikings — Slater Hicks and Tigran Greyan — placed second and seventh, respectively, at the California Interscholastic Federation state wrestling championships over the weekend.
“This is probably the best performance we’ve had as a team with two wrestlers placing in state,” Valencia coach Brian Peterson said. “This is the first time we’ve had two of the highest placers. We were 19th as a team with those two scoring wrestlers out of over a thousand high schools in California.”
Valencia placed 19th in the state competition as the Vikings scored 42 points and were the fourth highest-placed team from the Southern Section.
Hicks, who placed second in the 132-pound bracket, earned his second state medal after a sixth-place finish in last year’s competition in the 126-pound bracket.
Peterson added that Hicks, who’s a junior, came close to winning in the finals against Ashton Besmer of Buchanan High School.
Hicks secured a takedown in the early moments of the match but the junior could not hold on to the lead and Besmer rallied to come back to win, 9-6.
Peterson added that Hicks is in line to have a big senior season and that if the trend continues in rising places at the state competition, next year the Vikings can see Hicks at the top step of the podium.
“Next year, the pressure is going to be on us to win it,” Peterson said. “There’s one or two other kids that placed in the top eight that are coming back. So, we’re the one with the target on our back next year. But I think Slater knows and believes in himself now. He walked off that mat after a loss and said, ‘I can beat that kid.’”
Hicks will return for his senior season and is also committed to the University of Oklahoma.
As for Greyan, the senior ended his high school career with a state medal with a seventh-place finish in the 165-pound bracket.
Greyan defeated Treyton Sheets of Frontier High School, 13-3, with four takedowns in the win.
Last season, Greyan placed sixth in the state competition, and although he dropped one spot from last year, Peterson is still proud of his senior’s efforts and for how far he’s come.
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. He’s been wrestling for 10-plus years, but he has learned some new tricks,” Peterson said. “It took him a while for him to get warmed up to our program … and I think it’s going to help him grow as a human being. Not just going to college and learning about wrestling but I think it’s just going to make him a better human being.”
Greyan is set to continue his wrestling career at the collegiate level as he’s committed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
With the end of the wrestling season, the Valencia program earned two state medals and the Coastal Canyon League championship. Peterson said there are conversations around the wrestlers that this year’s team is among the best in program history.
One of the main comparisons: Does this year’s team trump the 2018 team? That year, the Vikings won a CIF championship.
Although Peterson added he believes it was a great season, he’ll leave it up to the kids to opine on where to place this team among Valencia wrestling history.
“The kids are always arguing about whether this was the best year,” he said. “It was the best year at state in terms of performance … but it was a great year, the boys were great and there were the most support and camaraderie from the parents and the kids.”
