SOUTHERN SECTION 4-A WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS : Canyon Is Second to Indio, but Scores Seem Unimportant

Orange County wrestlers dominated a somber Southern Section 4-A wrestling championships Saturday night at Rio Hondo College.

Canyon High School, trying for a fourth 4-A team championship in the past five years, fell just short, losing to Indio, 152 1/2-135 1/2. Irvine was third, 2 1/2 points behind Canyon.

When the meet was over, Canyon Coach Gary Bowden sat in front of the awards stand, snapping pictures of his wrestlers.

“I really have to say after watching that boy die yesterday, it put things in perspective,” Bowden said.

Jason Rouimi, a 16-year-old from Agoura, collapsed following his first-round match Friday and later died of apparent cardiac arrest.

The meet went ahead as scheduled Saturday, but Bowden said finishing second didn’t seem such a big deal.

“I took stock, and instead of thinking, ‘We didn’t win,’ ” I said, “We had two champions and six guys going to the Masters Meet next week,’ ” Bowden said. “There are a lot of great things to come. I may be bald and ugly, but I’ve got a lot to be happy about.”

Canyon’s Jason Mitchell and Matt Padgett were two of the county’s seven champions Saturday.

Mitchell overwhelmed Carlos Castellanos of Mountain View, winning by a technical fall with 42 seconds left in the 140-pound final.

Padgett recorded his 32nd pin winning the 160-pound title. This one took just 42 seconds; Padgett was too strong and aggressive for Jaime Delatorre of Mountain View.

“I’d say this was probably one of my best finals--short and sweet,” said Padgett, who was fourth at 154 pounds in last year’s meet.

Alan Holmes, seeded sixth at 152 pounds, was Canyon’s third finalist but was defeated, 9-4, by Esperanza’s top-seeded Jason Nerio.

Canyon had one other potential champion, but Tom McCullough, top-seeded at 125 pounds, broke his hand in a household accident Thursday night and did not wrestle.

Without McCullough and the 25 points a possible victory would have brought Canyon, the Comanches fell short just short of Indio.

Dominic Bulone and Pablo Cunningham led Irvine’s big push for the team championship.

Bulone’s victory over Roy Galvan of Coachella Valley at 135 pounds was the most exciting of the night.

Trailing Galvan, who had pinned his past three opponents coming into the final, Bulone scored a reversal with 40 seconds left in the second period to pull within 5-4.

It looked as if the match would end that way, but Bulone scored another reversal with three seconds left for a 6-5 victory.

Cunningham defeated Manfred Blum of Indio, 7-5, in the 171-pound final with a takedown in the last 30 seconds.

Matt Baker of Katella looked overpowering in defeating Jess Calderon of Indio, 15-4.

And Danny Santana of El Modena won the 145-pound championship over Heda Kuwata of Channel Islands, 4-2.