Ventura’s Jimenez Finds Plenty of Life After a Championship : Wrestling: Senior leads Cougars to 3-A individual team title and sets sights on dual-meet final, Masters meet and state competition.

These are dog days for the Ventura High wrestling team.

Muscles and limbs of nearly everyone in tights are stretched and sore, and sweat continues to pour like rain from a Pacific storm.

On Saturday, the Cougars finished first among 11 teams at Edgewood Middle School in West Covina to win their first Southern Section 3-A Division individual team championship.

Yet, celebration was brief.

On Thursday, Ventura will face Torrance at Edison High in Huntington Beach in the Southern Section’s first dual-meet final.

On Saturday, five Cougar wrestlers will advance to the Southern Section Masters tournament at Fountain Valley High. The state final awaits the following week in Stockton.

Make room in that whirlpool.

“This is a great accomplishment for the team,” Ventura Coach Paul Clementi said Saturday. “But I am totally drained.”

Imagine how John Jimenez feels. After three months, 47 matches, five tournaments and countless minutes spent horizontally on the mat, Jimenez still had enough strength Saturday to win the 119-pound championship.

Jimenez, a senior and three-year varsity wrestler, dominated Andre Guerrero of Workman en route to a 15-5 victory and his fourth consecutive win in the two-day tournament.

Jimenez, who was voted the tournament’s most valuable player in weight categories 140 pounds and below, went the six-minute distance in three matches after an opening-round pin of a Savanna wrestler in 1 minute 38 seconds.

“Actually, I don’t really feel it right now,” Jimenez said after the match. “I won’t feel it all until after the season.”

He will have much on which to reflect. Saturday’s victory was his school-record 46th against only two losses.

At times, the wins have come in bunches. Jimenez, who placed fourth in the Southern Section last season, finished first in four tournaments--Newbury Park, Lemoore, Rosemead and the California invitational tournament in San Luis Obispo--and has gone to the mat as many as 12 times in one week.

Jimenez has recorded 18 pins this season. He had 12 last season and 11 his sophomore year. His career record is 103-18-1. “He’s not so much of a pinner as he is a guy who will take a guy and beat him, 18-2,” Clementi said.

That strategy takes time, strength and the ability to overcome fatigue. It also should help him achieve his career goal. After wrestling in college, Jimenez said he plans to pursue a career as a firefighter.

“You get kinda burnt out, but you just gotta stick with it,” said Jimenez, who performs aerobic exercises each night at a neighborhood gym. “It all comes down to who wants it more. Some of the guys are really tired and really sore. I feel pretty good.”

Ventura junior Matt Jones (140 pounds), who also won an individual championship Saturday with a 6-4 win over Steve Sethman of Whittier, emerged from the bout with a gash on the bridge of his nose.

“I’ve had it for three weeks,” said Jones, who improved to 45-3. “It just won’t heal up.”

Cougar senior Scott Adams, his nostrils dripping with blood and his brow dripping with sweat, emerged from his 189-pound championship match in emotional pain.

Adams, the 3-A’s defending 189-pound champion, was upset by Art Suarez of Covina, who pinned Adams with 23 seconds left in the match.

Despite missing much of the early season because of a shoulder injury, Adams entered the match with a record of 30-0.

Jimenez, Jones and Adams--a combined 121-6--along with juniors Jason Carmody (130) and Justin Jackson (135), advanced to the Masters.

As far as the dual-meet title goes, Jimenez would just as soon skip it and get some rest. “I don’t see why we have to do it,” he said. “We already won the (Southern Section individual) championship. That proved enough for me. But I’ll do it.”

The welcome end of a long season is near, Clementi said.

“This sport pushes you,” Clementi said. “At the end of the season, it’s really easy to stop doing the same things over and over again. But these guys also can see the light at the end of the tunnel and they know they’re approaching it. When this is over, believe me, I’ll rest.”