A New Determination Drives Cypress’ Stegall : Wrestling: He wasn’t at his best at last year’s state community college tournament. He hopes for a reversal today.

Ken Stegall remembers his appearance in the state community college wrestling tournament last year in Fresno, but not with a great deal of affection.

He was sick--had a sore throat--and in his own words, “was pretty much hating life.” But he wrestled anyway, lost twice and watched the rest of the competition from the stands.

This year, Stegall has returned to the tournament, which begins today on his home mats at Cypress College. It continues Saturday with the championship matches starting at 7 p.m.

Stegall’s chances of placing high in the 190-pound division are pretty good too, mainly because of last year’s failure.

“After it was over,” he said, “I started to do a little extra so it wouldn’t happen again.”

For Stegall, extra meant more running and more time spent on technique, instead of relying mostly on upper-body strength.

The results have been impressive. Stegall is 25-2 and has been ranked in the top three in the state in his weight class all season. He won his division last weekend at the South-Central Regional in Bakersfield.

“I’ve beaten all the top people in my class,” Stegall said. “So I’m ready for this weekend.”

Stegall graduated from Enterprise High School in Redding in 1989. He considered attending nearby Shasta College, but it didn’t have a wrestling program. He also thought about Lassen College, which has one of the state’s top programs, but he didn’t want to live in a dormitory.

Cypress entered into his thinking only because his grandfather had been in Southern California about this time in 1988, and read in a newspaper that the Chargers had just missed winning the state title.

“He saw that Cypress was pretty good,” Stegall said. “I had the chance to move down and decided it might be worth a try.”

So Stegall moved into his great grandmother’s house in Cypress.

Last season, he finished with an 18-11 record.

“I tried to just overpower people like I did in high school,” he said. “But it didn’t work that much because now they were just as strong as I was.”

Stegall started wrestling as a 205-pound high school sophomore in the heavyweight division, where he was giving away as much as 40 pounds to opponents.

“I was just too lazy to lose the weight to get down (to 190),” he said.

He finished one place shy of the state tournament as a sophomore and junior. In his senior year, he decided to make the effort to lose the weight and finished fourth in the state.

“My mother helped me a lot,” he said. “I got a whole new diet that cut out all the fat, and it really wasn’t that hard. I guess I should have done it sooner.”

Tournament Notes

Besides Ken Stegall, Orange County’s best chances for a state title are with Sam Lopez of Cypress. Lopez, who finished third last season, is 30-0 and top-ranked at 118 pounds. Jason Booth of Rancho Santiago, also in the 118-pound class, has been unranked all season but won the South Regional. Rancho Santiago will have 10 wrestlers, Cypress seven and Golden West six in the tournament. Golden West had two wrestlers--Derek Hite (134) and Mike Biss (158)--place second in the South Central Regional. . . . The tournament’s two-day schedule: Today’s first session is from noon to 3:30 p.m., the second from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday’s first session runs from noon to 4:30 p.m. where third through eighth place will be determined. The finals are scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday. . . . Admission is $12 for all four sessions or $5 for adults and $3 for students and children for individual sessions.