State Wrestling : Not Many Surprises for Openers : Five From County Move Up, but Ruiz Forfeits

Friday’s preliminary rounds in the CIF State Wrestling Championships at Independence High School brought few surprises as most of the wrestlers favored to make it to today’s semifinals did just that.

As expected, Orange County wrestlers Ed Regan of Sunny Hills, Kyle Iwanaga, Todd Tomaczic and Steve Lawson of El Dorado, and Randy Gonzales of Rancho Alamitos are all still in the running for state championships in their weight classes.

The lone disappointment among county wrestlers expected to challenge for a title was Marina’s Ed Ruiz, who forfeited his initial match against Terry Watts of San Diego Poway at 129 pounds because of an injury.

Ruiz hurt his shoulder in last week’s Southern Section Masters Tournament at Westminster and never recovered.

“I didn’t even wrestle all week because of it,” Ruiz said. “I worked out by running to keep in shape, hoping it would come around, but it didn’t help.”

Other notable county wrestlers who lost preliminary matches Friday included Blake Arakaki and Chris Wright of Loara and Chuck Weatherspoon of La Habra.

Arakaki shouldn’t feel too badly about his second-round, 13-10 defeat, considering it came against Independence sophomore Marco Sanchez, who is unbeaten (42-0) at 109 pounds and is one of four semifinalists remaining in that weight class.

Wright, meanwhile, won his first two matches at 179 pounds, pinning Pat Cunningham of Lowell and then outpointing Ivan Moseman of Capuchino, 7-5. But his luck soon ran out afterward.

In the quarterfinals against Liberty’s Tony Darone, Wright put up a good fight, but lost, 6-3. He will continue wrestling in today’s consolation bracket.

Then there was Weatherspoon, who was wrestling on a mat adjacent to Wright’s during the quarterfinals. Likewise, Weatherspoon lost at heavyweight to Trent Barnes of Clovis West.

Barnes pinned Weatherspoon at 2:51 of their match, but Weatherspoon, who was competing in his first season wrestling, took the defeat in stride.

“I felt confident out there, but I only know the basic moves, and all the other guys I wrestle have been at it a lot longer than I have,” Weatherspoon said.

At 215 pounds, Weatherspoon is noticeably smaller than most of the other heavyweights at this meet, but his strong legs and upper body nonetheless make him a formidable foe.

El Dorado’s Lawson and Tomaczic were impressive in the early going Friday.

At 194 pounds, Lawson won his first match by technical fall (a 15-point decision) and followed that with a 9-3 victory in the quarterfinals over Dan Telem of Clovis.

Telem entered the meet as the Central Section champion, but didn’t have much luck going up against the unbeaten (45-0) Lawson, a relentless wrestler who seems to get stronger as the six-minute matches go on.

Tomaczic advanced to the semifinals by pinning his first two opponents before outscoring Doug Bowles of Las Plumas in their quarterfinal match, 9-6.

Iwanaga defeated Anthony Tamez of ClovIs, 9-7, in the quarterfinals. Tamez was the top-seeded 108-pound wrestler from the Central Section.