Laguna Hills’ Mitch Newcomer didn’t make the finals at 135 pounds, but maybe more impressively was the way he handled his defeat to Poway’s Conrad Snell.

After losing to Snell in the semifinals, 9-6, Newcomer, went about his business to finish third and he did, finishing the tournament with a 3-0 victory over Shervin Iraniha.

“That showed a lot of heart on his part,” Jarmie said of Newcomer. “It would have been easy to be disappointed and give it up, but he didn’t do that.”

Newcomer, who entered the tournament ranked second in the state, defeated Nathan Zarate of Selma, 14-3 before topping Iraniha.

Newcomer started the season at 140s, but made the drop to 135s. He made the transition seamlessly as he won Five Counties, Pacific Coast League, CIF and Masters championships.

“He ended up third here, so he lost once here and once earlier,” Jarmie said. “I think he’s 60-2 ….that’s amazing. He had a pretty stellar year and a pretty stellar career.”

Click here for more Tapped Out blog posts from the tournament.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.