La Cañada wrestling gears up for postseason
A week after securing his first-ever Rio Hondo League wrestling team championship as a coach, La Cañada High’s Justin Luthey is ready for another milestone.
The fourth-year coach is hoping his Spartans can capture a playoff victory at the CIF Southern Section Western Division Dual Meet Championships.
His squad will get another chance Saturday as the Southern Section office released pairings Thursday afternoon.
Rio Hondo League champion La Cañada (11-2) will face No. 9-seed Paramount (16-4), a San Gabriel Valley League at-large team, at Lakewood High at 11 a.m.
“We’re excited for this opportunity and we think we can make a run,” Luthey said. “We’ve been in a few tournaments this year and haven’t had a chance to see Paramount yet. I know they come from a very good league and we know it’s going to be a challenge.”
Luthey’s Spartans are 0-3 in dual meet action with three straight first-round losses to West Torrance (49-25 score), Gabrielino (35-34) and Mayfair (69-9).
Last season’s defeat to Mayfair at Long Beach Millikan was the worst in the Luthey-era and came after the team finished third in league and advanced as an at-large entrant.
If there’s an advantage this time around, Luthey’s Spartans will enter Saturday as a league champion and will have perhaps the best opportunity over the last four postseasons to pick up a victory.
“Last year, we got what we deserved against a great team,” Luthey said. “But if you look a couple of years back against Gabrielino, we almost had a win. I think we can get that.”
The last time the Spartans found success at the dual meet championships came under coach Gavin Williams in the 2011-2012 season.
La Cañada defeated Downey Calvary Chapel, 52-21, in the first round of the Division VI Dual Meet Championship before losing to Los Padres League champion Nipomo, 45-22, in the quarterfinals.
A first-round victory Saturday would vault the Spartans into the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. against No. 3-seed Long Beach Millikan (28-0), the Moore League champion. Millikan was awarded one of four byes in the tournament.
La Cañada will be the only team to represent the Rio Hondo League as runner-up Hoover (3-1) chose not to apply for a postseason berth.
“We have two goals for this tournament,” Luthey said. “The first is to pick up experience against quality opponents by going as far as we can. The second is to stay healthy. We still have a lot of wrestling left and this is a great opportunity to prepare us going forward.”
Rio Hondo League individual finals will take place Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Monrovia High.
