CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Titan Wrestlers to Have First Test in Las Vegas Meet

It’s like opening the college football season at Miami or the basketball season at Duke or getting called up to the major leagues and having to face Roger Clemens in your first at-bat.

The Cal State Fullerton wrestling team will dive head-first into the 1991-92 season at this weekend’s Las Vegas Invitational, which has received RSVPs from 11 of the nation’s top 20 teams in the Amateur Wrestling News poll.

Heading the 49-team field for the Friday-Saturday tournament is top-ranked Iowa, second-ranked Oklahoma State and fifth-ranked Iowa State. Arizona State (seventh), Michigan (eighth), Nebraska (10th), Purdue (14th), Pittsburgh (15th), Syracuse (16th), Oregon State (18th) and Oregon (20th) also will be there.

And so will Cal State Fullerton, which didn’t even make Amateur Wrestling News’ top 40.

“To warm up with the Las Vegas Invitational is not a good way to start,” Titan Coach Dan Lewis said. “But we should know real soon whether we’re any good or not.”

Lewis expects the Titans to be pretty good. Fullerton returns three NCAA qualifiers from a team that placed 22nd at last season’s national championships: junior Michael Grubbs at 118 pounds, senior Lyndon Campbell at 134 and sophomore Lazslo Molinar at 167.

All three are ranked by Wrestling USA among the nation’s top 25 in their weight classes, and Lewis believes ninth-ranked Campbell, who went 34-10 last season, has a legitimate shot at a national championship.

Lewis also had his best recruiting class in 10 years, bringing in such prospects as Curtis Alkire (Yosemite Monache High School), Ronnie Long (Temecula), John Sanchez (San Jose Overfelt), Tim Ryan (San Marcos) and Eric Spooner (Las Vegas El Dorado).

Alkire and Long are two-time California state finishers who are battling for the 142-pound slot. Sanchez, who placed third in the state 189-pound division last season, will wrestle at 190, and Ryan, who was sixth in the 1990 state heavyweight division, will remain at heavyweight. Spooner, a two-time Nevada State champion, is pushing Molinar at 167.

“I think we have a better overall team this year than last year,” Lewis said.

You’d never know it looking at the polls. Fullerton has improved in each of the past three years, sending three wrestlers to the nationals in 1989, four in 1990 and a school-record seven in 1991. Lewis believes the Titans have been slighted by the national magazines, but that’s OK.

“We’re kind of the new kids on the block, and the traditional Midwest teams still get the nod,” Lewis said. “But that’s motivation for us. The only way to get respect is to earn it, and by the end of the year, we hope to do that.”

Add Respect: Not everyone has overlooked the Fullerton wrestling program. Lewis said the Titans have received an invitation to participate in next season’s Virginia Duals, one of the nation’s most prestigious tournaments held each winter in Hampton, Va.

For the past several years, the tournament has invited 16 of the nation’s top college teams and has billed itself as the national dual-meet championship. The NCAA does not crown a dual-meet champion.

“It’s a huge step for the program to be in contact with the East Coast and to have that kind of notoriety,” Lewis said, adding that the Titans will accept the invitation. “That made me feel good.”

Money Man: It should come as no surprise that Fullerton’s rise to national prominence in wrestling has coincided with Arthur Osborne’s support of the program.

For four years, Osborne, a physician who works at the Metcalf Orthopedic Group in Covina, has donated between $50,000 and $70,000 a year to the program, allowing Lewis to fund the NCAA maximum of 11 full scholarships. If Lewis relied on school funding, he could afford about one scholarship.

“We wouldn’t be where we are now without him,” Lewis said.

Olympic Hopeful: Former Titan wrestler David Jones, who placed fourth among heavyweights at last season’s NCAA championships, is training for April’s U.S. Open Nationals in Las Vegas. Winners gain berths on the 1992 Olympic freestyle wrestling team.

Jones, who is serving as a graduate assistant coach under Lewis, is currently ranked fourth nationally in the 220-pound division. He wrestled at 276 last season but has trimmed to 230 and plans to lose another 10 pounds for competition.

Sabbatical: Fullerton junior Jeff Maes, a two-time NCAA qualifier at 126 pounds, has decided to red-shirt this season in order to give his body more time to grow into his weight class, Lewis said. Maes, who will have two more years of eligibility, went 23-10-1 in 1990-91.

Titan Notes

The basketball team was unable to practice Monday night in Indianapolis in preparation for tonight’s game against Butler. The team’s connecting flight from Chicago to Indianapolis was delayed for about four hours because too much ice had accumulated on the wings. . . . Miki Mangan, a catcher who helped Camarillo High win the Southern Section 5-A softball championship last spring, has signed a letter of intent to play softball at Fullerton, Coach Judi Garman said. Mangan was also a member of the California Raiders team that won an American Softball Assn. age-group national championship over the summer. . . . Women’s gymnastics Coach Lynn Rogers has received letters of intent from Cristi Clifford of Puyallup, Wash., and Brandi Baldasano of New Britain, Pa. Baldasano is a second cousin of Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda. . . . The volleyball team closed the season with a 9-27 record and went 4-14 in the Big West Conference, the most conference victories in school history. Sophomore outside hitter Becky Howlett finished with 33 double-figure kill matches, which ties her for seventh in the NCAA single-season record book. Howlett finished with 648 kills, breaking the school record of 633 she set last season. Stephanie Scofield finished her Titan career with a school-record 1,393 digs, and Stephanie Shrieve finished her career with a school-record 3,388 assists.