Hoover wrestling locks down historic win against La Cañada
While the Hoover High wrestling program has enjoyed great individual efforts throughout its five-year existence, this week has proven to be one of the most momentous in program history.
A few days removed from winning their first-ever tournament, the Tornadoes notched another program milestone by defeating host La Cañada, 42-27, in Rio Hondo League action Thursday afternoon.
The victory does many things for the Tornadoes, not the least of which is securing the program’s first-ever victory against the Spartans, who have finished runner-up in league the last three years.
“This feels great,” said Hoover Coach Dave Beard, whose program captured the Jim Bauer Memorial Tournament on Saturday. “La Cañada has a lot of numbers and I wanted this for my seniors who have fought to get here.”
With the win, Hoover improved to 10-3 overall and 3-0 in league, which positions the Tornadoes at a chance to challenge mighty San Marino for the league crown.
Hoover must first face St. Paul on Thursday before a Feb. 2 matchup with the Titans, the three-time reigning league champs and CIF Southern Section Western Division runner-up.
Should Hoover beat St. Paul, but still lose to San Marino, the Tornadoes would still finish with their highest-ever place in league by taking second, and will also qualify to bid for one of eight at-large berths to the Western Division Dual Meet Championships on Feb. 6.
Hoover has never qualified to the dual meet postseason, which in part led to a playoff-like atmosphere inside La Cañada’s gym.
The clinching bout came at 220 pounds with Hoover holding a slight 30-27 advantage.
Tornadoes junior Chris White, a Sherman Oaks Notre Dame transfer, matched up with La Cañada’s Mitchell Staron instead of arguably La Cañada’s best wrestler, David Vardanian, who was out with an injury.
White missed pins on a couple of takedown chances, but still led, 6-3, after one round and, 8-5, after two. White eventually flipped and pinned Staron at 5:25 for the victory that clinched the bout as the Tornadoes took an insurmountable 36-27 lead with one weight left.
“Ever since I’ve come to Hoover, it’s just been great and it’s awesome to win this for these guys,” said White, who was also a linebacker on the football team. “Coach Beard, [football coach Matt] Anderson, they all work so hard and they deserve this.”
La Cañada’s Tyler Breneman picked up a 7-4 win at 152 pounds to tie the match at 21 at the midway point.
Hoover responded with two pivotal wins, first from 160-pounder Michael Fernandez, 6-2, to give the team the lead for good followed by a pin from 170-pounder Murad Muradyan as the Tornadoes took a 30-21 advantage.
La Cañada (11-3, 2-1) answered back with a pair of wins, but only six points as Shawayne Emadi was victorious, 6-4, at 182 pounds, which was preceded with a physical 2-0 triumph from Armand Bogossian at 195 pounds.
Up, 30-27, White sealed the victory and La Cañada chose not to send out an inexperienced heavyweight, instead forfeiting to Hoover’s Azad Markosian for the 42-27 total.
“It feels very good to win, it’s just big,” said Muradyan, who received a hug from Arthur Ghukasyan, Hoover’s inaugural state qualifier. “We can’t stop. We have to keep winning.”
La Cañada raced to an 18-0 lead courtesy of a forfeit at 106 pounds and pins from Aram Behshid and Jacob Barsom at 113 and 120 pounds, respectively.
The Spartans’ spurt was answered by a 21-0 run from the Tornadoes, who had pins from Karlen Hakobyan (126), Narek Zamanyan (138) and Geraldy Martinez (145). In between, Hoover’s Jessie Martinez defeated La Cañada’s Andrew Aghadjanians, 8-3, in arguably the match’s marquee bout.
With his team likely missing the dual meet championships for the first time in three years and first time in his tenure, La Cañada Coach Justin Luthey was disappointed, but respected Hoover’s progress.
“We came out too tight, too apprehensive and Hoover came out ready to go and to take chances,” said Luthey, who was missing three starters due to injuries. “We got some wins, but we didn’t get the points we needed. We didn’t get the pins.
“You could say we were missing a few of our big guys, starters, but I can’t take anything away from [Beard] and Hoover. Hats off to them, they’ve done a really good job and they’ve matured and grown up.”
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Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com
Twitter: @campadresports
