Cal State Fullerton Notebook : Titan Wrestler Jones Tries to Make Up for an Unexpected Defeat

Cal State Fullerton wrestler David Jones began the 1988 season with impressive credentials.

After a 25-10 freshman season, Jones, 20, won a junior national championship last spring and became a silver medalist in a world junior tournament in the summer.

A few weeks ago, Amateur Wrestling News ranked Jones the 11th-best collegiate wrestler in the nation.

Jones, a heavyweight, was feeling pretty good. Then, at the Arizona State Invitational last Saturday, he got beat.

The 8-3 loss to unranked Rod Smart of Brigham Young University came less than an hour after Jones defeated highly respected Mike Anderson of Arizona State.

Although he finished the tournament, 4-1, and was the only Titan to defeat a member of No. 2-ranked Arizona State, Jones was not at all pleased.

“There’s no way I should’ve lost that match,” he said. “I was concentrating more on the Arizona State guy. I beat him, but when I wrestled (Smart), my mind sort of slipped.

“I took him too lightly, went out and got beat up for it.”

But Titan Coach Dan Lewis said Jones might have learned a lesson in the loss.

“David’s still young, but I think he might have been a little overconfident,” Lewis said. “He’s been getting a lot of notoriety lately. He’s on the cover of our schedule cards. . . . I don’t think he’s used to getting such publicity. I’m not sure he’s ready for all that attention.”

Jones, a 5-foot 9-inch 255-pounder, started wrestling 5 years ago as a freshman at Montclair (Calif.) High School in 1983.

“Before high school, I’d never really heard of wrestling,” Jones said. “I’d heard of Channel 13 wrestling, you know, but I didn’t know what real wrestling was. But then I saw some high school guys who were wrestlers. I knew if they could do it, I could do it.”

Jones, who also played football at Montclair, won the Masters meet as a junior and senior, and was second in the state championships as a senior.

Jones picked Fullerton over Cal State Northridge and Azusa-Pacific because the Titans were the only school that allowed him to wrestle and play football. But by the time football season started last year, Jones--who was on a wrestling scholarship--decided to concentrate on wrestling.

“I enjoy one-on-one competition,” he said. “Besides, I knew I was a better wrestler than a football player, so why was I wasting my time out there when I could do better in here?”

When not competing for Fullerton, Jones competes for the California Jets, a USA Wrestling-sponsored team based in Capistrano Beach. Last spring, Jones won the Espoir (20-and-under) National Championships at Reno, Nev.

He advanced to the Espoir World Cup at St. John, Newfoundland, where he placed second overall.

This season, Jones’ goal is to gain All-American honors at the NCAA championships March 15-17 at Oklahoma City. There, the top eight finishers in each weight division are named All-Americans.

Said Lewis: “If he continues to improve like he has been, he’ll be an All-American. He has a real good shot. . . . But if David continues to improve, his goal should be to become a national champion by the time he’s a senior. He has that kind of potential.”

At 1 p.m. Sunday, the Titans will take on the nation’s top-ranked team, Oklahoma State, in a nonconference dual meet in Titan Gym.

Jones said he’s not taking any opponent for granted this time.

“We’re putting in a lot of hard work this week,” he said. “I have to make up for this loss last weekend. It’s like starting all over.”

Football Coach Gene Murphy, who angrily told his seniors to “just show up and have a good game,” after all but four of them skipped practice last Thursday, discussed the prank with the team for the first time Monday.

“I told them I was disappointed about last Thursday, but it was a dead issue,” Murphy said. “They did too many good things in their years here (to dwell on that).”

The players said they had wanted to start a senior tradition and didn’t mean to offend the coaches. But Murphy canceled practice Friday, refused to allow senior introductions at the final game Saturday and benched most of the offending players at the start of Saturday’s game, a 23-13 victory over Utah State that clinched second place in the Big West Conference.

Fullerton has signed four women basketball players to letters of intent.

They are Aggie Garcia, a 5-11 forward, and Cheryl Hightower, a 5-7 point guard, both from Reseda High School; Heidi James, a 5-8 guard from Mesa (Ariz.) Mountain View; and Stacy Oughton, a 6-3 center from Bishop Amat.

Fullerton will play host to a women’s basketball tournament Friday and Saturday, with Loyola Marymount, St. Mary’s College and Cal Poly Pomona.