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San Manuel Miners
San Manuel High School wrestler and No. 2-seeded Franky Renteria pinned No. 1-seed Billy Fiore of Campo Verde in the third period of the 172(lb) weight-class 1st-place match at the 2017 Diego Gadea Salpointe Invitational, which took place at Salpointe Catholic High School on Jan. 20-21.
Renteria, a senior, is one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the state at his weight class and a was one of six Miners who competed at the event in Tucson.
As a team, San Manuel finished 22nd out of 34 teams, which included many in the three divisions above the Miners.
“(We) more than held our own against the big teams,” said the Miners’ head coach Manny Yubeta.
Julian Rodriguez (122) and Ruben Hernandez (197) each went 3 – 2, with Hernandez just missing out on pulling an upset over the No. 3-ranked wrestler in Division III. His other loss (6 – 4) came against the top-ranked wrestler in D-III.
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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