{"id":135969,"date":"2026-01-16T09:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/135969\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T09:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:13:07","slug":"long-beach-poly-sweeps-millikan-boys-pick-up-thrilling-victory-and-set-sights-on-league-title-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/135969\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Poly Sweeps Millikan, Boys Pick Up Thrilling Victory And Set Sights On League Title \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

The562\u2019s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To be the champion, you have to beat the champions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Long Beach Poly wrestling team has been on the rise the last few years thanks to a senior class that\u2019s grown together as a unit. While the girls\u2019 team got over the hump in recent years and have won back-to-back Moore League titles \u2013 the boys team was still searching for that feeling.<\/p>\n

That shining moment finally presented itself in the final match as the Jackrabbits trailed the Rams by five points. However, it wasn\u2019t one of the Jackrabbits\u2019 seasoned seniors that was up at that moment \u2013 it was sophomore Sammy Timu who needed a pin to give Poly a sure victory.<\/p>\n

With everyone on the edge of their seats in the gym, Timu delivered a decisive pin against Millikan\u2019s Teagan Rowsell that gave Poly six points \u2013 just enough to lift the Jackrabbits to a 35-34 win over the Rams in the Ron Palmer Pavilion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy team really needed this,\u201d Timu said of what was going through his mind before his match. \u201cThere was a lot of pressure on my back and I\u2019m just happy that I carried it through. I just want to shoutout my coach Ken (Lee) and everything that he\u2019s taught me that I needed to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Poly still has a match against Wilson next week, this victory positions the Jackrabbits with a chance to be Moore League undefeated champions next week.<\/p>\n

The final match had a range of emotions throughout the team including senior Alek Carrera who was in complete euphoria after Poly finally defeated Millikan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was honestly the most excited I\u2019ve ever been,\u201d Carrera said. \u201cThe duel came down to the last match which is horrifying when you\u2019re watching it, but to have our heavyweight come in with the pin we needed in the last 10 seconds of his match made me feel like I was in a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The match had plenty of exciting duels including a win by Jimmy Alvarez Jr. who came up with 4-3 nail-biting victory over Lincoln Chung to put Millikan up 19-8 early in the contest after Millikan\u2019s Anthony Avelar, Daniel Cullen and Kai Backstrom picked up wins to give the Rams an early, 16-0.<\/p>\n

Poly\u2019s Knox Espinoza gave the Jackrabbits their first win with a technical fall which cut Millikan\u2019s lead to 16-5.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy for the 4-year seniors on the team and coach Ken,\u201d Millikan coach Blake Lovato said of Poly\u2019s win. \u201cHe put together a good squad. I\u2019m glad those guys actually got to do something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Millikan extended the lead to 30-17 with wins by Jason Fiala and Chris Anguiano, Poly\u2019s Alberto Olague and Jordan Dizon answered back with two pins that cut the Rams\u2019 lead to 30-29 with two matches left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the penultimate match, Poly\u2019s Kevin Bennett lost in a major decision to Daniel Escobedo, which left the door open for the Jackrabbits as they trailed Millikan 34-29 \u2013 giving Timu the opportunity to tie or win the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a blessing,\u201d Lee said of his team\u2019s victory. \u201cWhat\u2019s really great to see is that we have a handful of seniors that just kind of came together and put it together. I\u2019m really proud of my team. They put up an excellent fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory capped an evening where the Jackrabbits celebrated their senior night and the Poly girls started the duel with a 47-35 win over Millikan in another thrilling contest between two of the cities best teams.<\/p>\n

After dropping their first contest with a bye, Riley Pestanas and Nicole Comia picked up wins by pin and technical fall to give the Jackrabbits an 11-6 lead. Jaelen Escala won by pin in the first 13 seconds of her match.<\/p>\n

The two teams went back and forth and after Meg Chelsea Pulido picked up a technical fall over her opponent to tie the match at 17 \u2013 the Rams pushed their match streak to four wins thanks to a forfeit and pins by Isabella Martinez and Kayde Preciado to give Millikan a 35-17 lead.<\/p>\n

Looking to get back into the match, Devynn Kripp came up with a pin victory that proved to be a turning point for Poly as they cut Millikan\u2019s lead to 35-23.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty scared,\u201d Kripp said. \u201cI believe I wrestled her before and she beat me. I was very nervous but I think that helped me grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eva Ardron then won her match by pin to cut the deficit to 35-29 and that was enough as the Rams had to forfeit the final three matches due to various reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something really special to see,\u201d Lee said about his senior class. \u201cEspecially because, you know with all these girls that we have, especially our senior class, none of them really had wrestling experience prior to coming to high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly will look for the Moore League sweep when they head to Wilson next week. For Millikan, it was a tough one after taking lead early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we preformed very well I thought they were mentally prepared,\u201d Millikan girls\u2019 wrestling coach Daniel Lopez said. \u201cThey were physically prepared. You know one injury in the 120s and then another one and then the Kripp loss really swayed things. Unfortunately I don\u2019t have the upper weights so my hands were a little tied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millikan and Poly will be back in action at the Five Counties Meet this weekend and will be back in league action when they face Jordan and Cabrillo\/Compton next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-135969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}