California consistently produces an incredible amount of high school wrestling talent. The current crop of high schoolers from The Golden State has piled up a massive collection of accolades and has major next-level potential. Here’s a look at some of the top wrestlers to watch this year in California. 

Michael Bernabe (Fresno) — Freshman, 106 pounds

Bernabe is one of the top freshmen in the country and is currently ranked second nationally at 106 pounds. Bernabe had a productive offseason, placing sixth in Fargo and third at the Super 32. He will be looking to run the table and win a California state title as a freshman, but it will not come easily. He will likely have #3 Luke Loren and #5 Thales Silva, both of whom are also incredible freshmen who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, at Super 32, as well as #4 Eli Mendoza. 

Rocklin Zinkin (Buchanan) — Senior, 120 pounds

Zinkin is one of the nation’s fastest-rising prospects. The two-time California state finalist won his first state championship last season at 113 pounds and followed that up with an eye-popping summer, finishing third at U17 World Team Trials, winning Fargo in the Junior division and looking incredible at Super 32 on his way to the 120-pound belt. Those showings propelled Zinkin from #100 on the 2026 Big Board up to #11. The Oklahoma State commit is currently ranked #2 in the country at 120 pounds and could have a showdown with two-time U17 World Champion Sammy Sanchez this season in his quest to close his career with a second state title. 

Watch Zinkin dominate in the Super 32 finals

Samuel Sanchez (Esperanza) — Sophomore, 120 pounds

The #1 prospect in the Class of 2028 Big Board is the truth. After winning the U17 World Championships in 2024, Sanchez won a state title as a freshman last season at 106 pounds and then one-upped himself by going back-to-back with his second U17 World title at 51 kg this summer in Athens, helping lead Team USA to the team championship. Sanchez is so much fun to watch, and if we were to get a matchup between him and Zinkin, it could be one of the nation’s most anticipated high school matches of the season. 

Watch Sanchez win his second U17 World Championship

Moses Mendoza (Gilroy) — Senior, 132 pounds

Mendoza is another Californian who has made big jumps heading into his senior campaign. The returning state champion for Daniel Cormier’s Gilroy High School team placed third at the state tournament in 2024. He has a lengthy list of freestyle accolades. The Michigan recruit defeated his former high school teammate, Isaiah Cortez, for the Fargo Junior freestyle title at 132 pounds this summer and won Super 32 in October. The nation’s second-ranked 132-pounder could have a big test in front of him for his second state title in #3 Ashton Besmer. 

Watch Mendoza win his Super 32 belt

Ashton Besmer (Buchanan) — Senior, 132 pounds

Besmer put together an incredible run to make the U17 World Team at 60 kilograms, punctuated by a sweep of U17 World champion Paul Kenny in the best-of-three championship series. Besmer also notched wins against Moses Mendoza and Manuel Saldate on his way to a Doc B title last season before finishing third at the state tournament. The Army West Point commit has worked his way up to #3 in the national rankings at 132 pounds and could be looking at a rubber match with Mendoza this season. Last year in the Doc B semifinals, Besmer defeated Mendoza 22-15 in a crazy match, but just two weeks later Mendoza got his revenge in the Five Counties finals with a 16-1 tech fall in two periods. 

Watch Besmer defeat Saldate for the 2025 Doc B title

Joseph Toscano (Buchanan) — Senior, 144 pounds

The third and final Buchanan wrestler on this list, Toscano is a three-time California state runner-up, He won a Doc B title as a freshman back in 2023, followed by two runner-up finishes, and has also been fourth at Super 32 the last two years. The Cornell commit is looking to get over the final hurdle on his way to a state championship, but it won’t be easy. Along the way,  Toscano could match up with the likes of #7 Ivan Arias and #17 Arseni Kikiniou. 

Arseni Kikiniou (Poway) — Junior, 144 pounds

Arseni Kikiniou is an interesting prospect and a guy to watch this season. Kikiniou’s father was a Greco-Roman World bronze medalist and Olympian for Belarus before their family moved to the United States, and his influence is evident in Arseni’s wrestling. Arseni claimed a bronze medal in Greco and a silver in freestyle at the U17 World Championships this summer. Arseni has placed second and fifth, respectively, in his first two state tournament appearances. He recently made his commitment to Cornell and will be making a big jump up in weight this season to 144 pounds. It’ll be intriguing to see if his international success translates to even more folkstyle success this season, especially with a possible showdown with future Cornell teammate Toscano on the horizon. 

Watch Kikiniou win his U17 Greco-Roman World bronze medal

Mason Ontiveros (Pitman) — Senior, 175 pounds

Ontiveros has had an impressive 2025, finishing second at the state tournament, taking third at NHSCAs, and placing second in Fargo in the Junior division at 175 pounds. This has vaulted Ontiveros up to #6 in the country at the weight. Ontiveros is an Oklahoma recruit who will be looking to close out his career with a state title in what could be an interesting weight class in California. As it currently stands, we could see #7 Mario Carini, #9 Travis Grace, #12 Isai Fernandez and #14 Slava Shahbazyana, along with Ontiveros, all battling it out for the 175-pound California state championship this season.

Watch Ontivero’s win in the 2025 Fargo Junior semifinals

Coby Merrill (JW North) — Senior, 285 pounds 

Coby Merrill is one of the most physical wrestlers in the country at any weight class. After state runner-up finishes as a freshman and sophomore, Merrill dominated the 285-pound field last season, finishing 48-0 with 44 falls. Merrill finished sixth at the U20 World Team Trials this summer and finished second in Fargo. The second-ranked heavyweight in the country is a heavy favorite to win his second state title this season. 

A natural gas line leak triggered a dramatic explosion that destroyed a Bay Area home on Thursday, injuring six people and damaging several other properties.

At least one person was inside the home before it was leveled in the blast. The individual managed to escape without injury, but six others were hurt, including three who suffered serious injuries, Alameda County Fire Department spokesperson Cheryl Hurd said.

“It was a chaotic scene,” Hurd said. “There was fire and debris and smoke everywhere, power lines down, people self-evacuated from the home. … Someone was on the sidewalk with severe burns.”

The leak started after a third-party construction crew working Thursday morning in the 800 block of East Lewelling Boulevard in Hayward struck a Pacific Gas and Electric underground natural gas line, according to a statement from the utility.

Fire crews were first dispatched to the scene at 7:46 a.m. after PG&E reported a suspected natural gas leak, Hurd said. PG&E officials were already on scene when fire engines arrived, and reportedly told firefighters their assistance was not needed, Hurd said.

Utility workers attempted to isolate the damaged line, but gas was leaking from multiple locations. Workers shut off the flow of gas at about 9:25 a.m. About ten minutes later an explosion occurred, PG&E said in a statement.

Fire crews were called back to the same address, where at least 75 firefighters encountered heavy flames and a thick column of smoke. Surrounding homes sustained damage from the blast and falling debris. Three buildings were destroyed on two separate properties and several others were damaged, according to fire officials.

Six people were taken to Eden Medical Center, including three with severe injuries requiring immediate transport. Officials declined to comment on the nature of their injuries.

Video captured from a Ring doorbell affixed to a neighboring house showed an excavator digging near the home moments before the explosion. The blast rattled nearby homes, shattered windows and sent construction crews running.

Initially, authorities suspected that two people were missing after the blast. That was determined not to be the case, Hurd said.

“They brought in two cadaver dogs looking to see if anyone was still trapped under the rubble, and the dogs cleared everything,” Hurd said.

Brittany Maldonado had just returned from dropping off her son at school Thursday morning when she noticed a PG&E employee checking out her gas meter. He informed her that there was an issue and they had to turn off the gas to her home.

She didn’t think twice about it.

“About 45 minutes later, everything shakes,” she told reporters at the scene. “It was a big boom…first we think someone ran into our house—a truck or something—and then we look outside and it’s like a war zone.”

The house across the street was leveled, Maldonado said. When she watched the footage from her Ring camera she said it looked as though a bomb inside the home had gone off.

“I’m very glad that no one lost their lives,” she said.

Officials with the Sheriff’s Office, PG&E and the National Transportation Safety Board are continuing to investigate the circumstances that led to the explosion.

In 2010, a PG&E pipeline ruptured in a San Bruno neighborhood, destroying 38 homes and killing eight people. California regulators later approved a $1.6-billion fine against the utility for violating state and federal pipeline safety standards.

Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — When this monarch butterfly hits the sky it won’t be traveling alone. In fact, an energetic team of researchers will be following along with a revolutionary technology that’s already unlocking secrets that could help the entire species survive.

“I’ve described this technology as a spaceship compared to the wheel, like using a using a spaceship compared to the invention of the wheel. It’s teaching us so, so much more,” says Ray Moranz, Ph.D., a pollinator conservation specialist with the Xerces Society.

Moranz is part of a team that’s been placing tiny tracking devices on migrating monarchs. The collaboration is known as Project Monarch Science. It leverages solar powered radio tags that are so light they don’t affect the butterfly’s ability to fly. And they’re allowing researchers to track the Monarch’s movements in precise detail. With some 400 tags in place, the group already been able to get a nearly real time picture of monarch migrations east of the Rockies, with some populations experiencing dramatic twists and turns before making to wintering grounds in Mexico.

“They’re trying to go southward to Mexico. They can’t fight the winds. Instead, some of them were letting themselves be carried 50 miles north, 100 miles north, 200 miles the wrong way, which we are all extremely alarmed by and for good reason. Some of these monarchs, their migration was delayed by two or three weeks.

According to estimates, migrating monarch populations have dropped by roughly 80% or more across the country. And the situation with coastal species here in California is especially dire. Blake Barbaree is a senior scientist with Point Blue Conservation Science. He and his colleagues are tracking Northern California populations now clustered around Santa Cruz.

MORE: Monarch butterflies to be listed as a threatened species in US

“This year, there’s it’s one of the lowest, populations recorded in the winter. And the core zones have been in Santa Cruz County and up in Marin County. So we’ve undertaken an effort to understand how the monarchs are really using these different groves around Santa Cruz by tagging some in the state parks around town,” Barbaree explains.

He says being able to track individual monarchs could help identify microhabitats in the area that help them survive, ranging from backyard pollinator gardens to protected open space to forest groves.

“So we’re really getting a great insight to how reliant they are on these big trees, but also the surrounding area and people’s even backyards. And then along the way around the coast, how they’re transitioning among some of these groves. And we’re looking for some of the triggers for those movements. Right. Why are they doing this and what’s what’s driving them to do that? So those questions are still a little bit further out as we get to analyze some more some more of the data,” he believes.

And that data is getting even more precise. The tags, developed by Cellular Tracking Technologies, can be monitored from dedicated listening stations. But the company is also able to crowdsource signals detected by cellphone networks on phones with Bluetooth connectivity and location access activated. And they’ve also helped develop an app that allows volunteers, citizen scientists, and the general public to track and report Monarch locations themselves using their smartphones.

CEO Michael Lanzone says the initial response has been overwhelming.

MORE: New butterflies introduced in SF’s Presidio after species went extinct in 1940s

“We were super surprised to see 3,000 people download the monarch app. It’s like, you know, but people really love monarchs. There’s something that people just relate to,” says Lanzone who like many staffers at Cellular Tracking Technologies, has a background in wildlife ecology.

A number of groups are pushing to have the monarchs designated nationally as a threatened species. If that ultimately happens, researchers believe the tracking data could help put better protections in place.

“They’re highly vulnerable to, you know, some of the different things that that that we as humans do around using pesticides and also potentially cutting, you know, cutting down trees for various reasons. Sometimes they’re for safety and sometimes it’s, you know, for development. But so having an understanding of how we can do those things more sensibly and protect the places that they need the most,” says Point Blue’s Barbaree.

And it’s happening with the help of researchers, citizen scientists, and a technology weighing no more than a few grains of rice.

The smartphone app is called Project Monarch Science. You can download it for free and begin tracking.