San Diego Section Wrestling : Poway Masters San Diego, Goes for State Title Next

There never was a question as to which team would win the San Diego Section Masters wrestling championship Saturday night at Mt. Carmel High School.

Poway was a cinch.

However, there were a couple of questions: What would be the Titans’ margin of victory and how many wrestlers would they qualify for the state meet?

The answers, in order, were by a landslide and 10 out of 13 weight classes.

Poway scored 227 1/2 points to outdistance runner-up Valhalla (161). More importantly, the Titans’ 10 qualifiers for the state meet is a county record, breaking the previous best of nine established by Monte Vista in 1974.

It also put Poway in excellent position to become the second straight San Diego team to win the state championship. Valhalla won it last year on the strength of only three wrestlers.

But Poway Coach Wayne Branstetter cautioned against calling his club a shoo-in for the state title.

“You have to have quality in that quantity to win it,” he said. “In 1982, we qualified eight kids for state and finished 11th.

“But there’s better quality in our quantity this time around.”

Indeed. Poway had two individual champions, seven runners-up and one third-place finisher. The top three qualify for the state.

About the only thing Poway didn’t win was the most valuable wrestler award, which went to Tim Briggs of Granite Hills.

Briggs, the 142-pound champion, impressively captured his division. He won his first match by a fall in 1:45, his second match with a 15-0 decision, his semifinal match with a fall in 1:28 and his championship match with a fall in 3:45.

Other individual champions included: 102--John Grubbs, El Camino; 109--Juan White, Monte Vista; 116--Kevin Eagleton, Monte Vista; 123--Richard Tarditi, Mt. Miguel; 130--Frank Torres, San Marcos; 136--John Sargent, Poway; 149--Mark Gerardi, Valhalla; 158--Manuel Diaz-conti, Mt. Miguel; 169--Joseph Damirijian, Clairemont; 179--Bob Brust, Poway; 195--Rob Tennet, Valhalla; and heavyweight--Doug Gann, Orange Glen.

Valhalla qualified six wrestlers for the state meet, second to Poway. Monte Vista qualified five, Granite Hills four, Orange Glen three and Mt. Miguel two.

Carlsbad, Clairemont, El Camino, Escondido, Holtville, Hoover, Mt. Carmel, Oceanside and San Marcos all qualified one wrestler.

Rounding out the top five in the team standings were Monte Vista (145), Mt. Miguel (113) and Granite Hills (105 1/2), all from the Grossmont League.