Southern Section Tennis : Mira Costa’s Tarango Beats Calabasas’ Wiere for Title

Last year at the Southern Section individual tennis championships, Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa High School was an unseeded 16-year-old who crashed the party.

He made quite an impression, upsetting three of the top six seeded players, including a semifinal victory over top-seeded Tim Trigueiro, before losing to Mike Briggs of Corona del Mar in the final.

This year he was the guest of honor at the championships, seeded No. 1 after having lost only one set all season.

Saturday, Tarango put the finishing touch on his brilliant season, closing out his high school career by winning the Southern Section individual tennis title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 4-seeded Steve Wiere of Calabasas at the Newport Beach Tennis Club. “The match went pretty much as I expected,” Tarango said. “I knew that if I ran him, he wouldn’t be able to last too long. I’m just in a lot better shape.”

It also didn’t help Wiere that, after defeating No. 2-seeded Briggs in the semifinals, he had to play Tarango on the same day.

“Usually when I beat Briggs, I’d expect the tournament to be over,” Wiere said. “I wouldn’t expect to then have to face Tarango.”

Tarango defeated Steve Oliver, also of Calabasas, 6-4, 7-6, in his semifinal match.

Against Wiere, Tarango opened with a 3-0 lead. But just as it seemed that Tarango was about to run away, Wiere came up with an incredible shot that temporarily gave him the momentum.

With his back to the net, Wiere hit a shot between his legs, a la Yannick Noah, to win a point that Tarango appeared to have won. Inspired, Wiere went on to win three straight games to tie Tarango at 3-3.

But Tarango stopped making unforced errors and started running Wiere again to win three straight games and take the first set, 6-3.

In the second set, Tarango and Wiere were tied at 2-2 when Tarango took control, breaking Wiere’s serve after the game had gone to deuce seven times.

“I was kind of in the blahs,” Tarango said. “That got me going, it sparked me.”

After that game, Tarango simply sat back and hammered shots down the line while a very tired Wiere made little or no attempt at them to win the match.

In the doubles championship, Jeff Giesa and Barry Hancock of Santa Ana Foothill defeated Peter Fitzpatrick and Bobby Langley of Rancho Palos Verdes Miraleste, 7-5, 6-2.