Community College Notebook / Steve Kresal : Heavyweight Crawford Is Giving Other People Pain These Days

Tom Crawford’s first appearance as a community college wrestler was impressive.

Crawford, a Rancho Santiago freshman, pinned his three opponents in the Cypress tournament Nov. 1 to win the heavyweight division. Not bad for a guy who missed the first five weeks of the season with a sore lower back.

Success is nothing new for Crawford, 6-feet 1-inch and 265 pounds. He was the Southern Section heavyweight champion and finished second in the state tournament as a senior at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta.

He graduated in 1985 and accepted a scholarship to wrestle at Oklahoma State. But the Oklahoma experience was one Crawford could have done without.

As a freshman, he redshirted because he was on the same team as Tom Erickson, the top-ranked collegiate heavyweight in the country. He also injured his left knee and required surgery. Academics were also tough. He struggled with little better than a C average.

“It was culture shock I guess,” Crawford said. “It was also the first time I’d ever been injured. It was just a difficult place for me.”

So, he left after the school year and moved to San Clemente, where he lives with wrestling coach Bob Anderson.

As a senior in high school, Crawford traveled from Goleta to San Diego almost every weekend to train at Anderson’s wrestling camp. Anderson coaches the JETS (Junior Elite Training), a wrestling team of which Crawford is a member.

Anderson sent Crawford to Rancho Santiago to be coached by Gary deBeaubien.

Last summer, Crawford wrestled in the National Amateur Athletic Union tournament in Las Vegas and finished second in the 19-20-year-old division.

But during the tournament, he suffered the lower back injury that kept him out earlier this season at Rancho Santiago.

After his initial success at the Cypress tournament, Crawford, 19, found a little better competition in Palomar’s Paul Merminguez, a member of the state’s No. 1 wrestling team.

They met for the first time in the West Valley tournament Nov. 8. Crawford won, 3-1.

But Merminguez defeated Crawford, 2-1, last Saturday in the San Luis Obispo tournament to win a berth in the North/South tournament, an all-star meet Saturday at Cuesta College.

“I’m going to work even harder from now on,” Crawford said. “That match really upset me, he rode me the whole match and I just couldn’t get up. My father had come up from Goleta to watch me wrestle and I lost.

“I’ll get another chance at him at in the regionals (Dec. 4 and 5 at Cypress) though and I’m working hard toward that.”

Friday night football is the special this week in the final week of the South Coast Conference regular season. El Camino (3-3, 3-6) plays Golden West (4-2, 8-2) in Costa Mesa’s LeBard Stadium. The Rustlers will try to stop a two-game losing streak.

Saturday night, Fullerton (4-2, 5-4) plays at Pasadena (4-2, 5-4) at 7:30 in the other South Coast Conference game.

In the Mission Conference: Rancho Santiago (5-3, 6-3) is at Saddleback (4-4, 4-5) and Citrus (2-6, 2-7) is at Orange Coast (5-3, 5-4). Both start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Glendale (10-0), which accepted a bid to play Mission Conference champion Riverside (8-1) in the PONY Bowl Dec. 6, continues to lead the state and Southern California polls. Riverside is second, San Diego Mesa third and Cerritos fourth. Golden West fell to fifth and Saddleback is sixth.

Rancho Santiago, which has four consecutive victories, makes its first appearance in the poll at No. 7.

The Orange Coast women’s soccer team won the South Coast Conference and plays fourth-place Bakersfield in the first round of the regional tournament Friday. The Pirates (14-1-1) play the Renegades at 2:30 at Long Beach City.

Second-place Golden West and third-place El Camino play at noon, and the winners meet in the championship game Saturday.

Golden West freshman Shannon Augustine, a soccer forward from Tustin High School, scored 23 goals this season to set the women’s single-season school record.

Freshman Mike Bunge of Orange Coast was named most valuable player of the Orange Empire Conference in a vote of the conference water polo coaches.

First-team selections were Eric Keller, Karl Stewart and Kurt Christensen of Orange Coast; Dean Haskins, Troy Simington and Steve Redding of Rancho Santiago, and Eric Long and J.T. Dennis of Saddleback.

Sophomore Jason Jeffries of Golden West and Scott Leonard of Long Beach City were picked the co-MVPs of the South Coast Conference.

Scott Larsen, Brain Brotherton and Craig Douglass of Golden West were voted to the first team, as was Bill Peery of Fullerton.

Jeffries, Gary Tichy and Larsen of Golden West, Bunge, Stewart and Keller of OCC and Haskins and Reddington of Rancho Santiago were voted first-team all-Southern California.

Second-team honors went to Brotherton and Douglas of Golden West, Simington of Rancho Santiago and Long and Shore of Saddleback.

The Golden West water polo team tries for its second consecutive state title this weekend in the state finals at Merced College. The Rustlers play Modesto at noon, and Long Beach City plays DeAnza at 1 p.m.

The winners meet Saturday for the title.

Orange Coast cross-country runners Dave Parsel and Harolene Walters were voted the top runners in the Orange Empire Conference. The OCC men won the conference title. The women placed second at the state final in Fresno behind MiraCosta; the men placed sixth. Alan Hancock won the men’s division.