SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION IV WRESTLING : Rancho Alamitos’ Harmon Claims Title at 160 Pounds

Jake Harmon of Rancho Alamitos, top seeded in the 160-pound division, pinned Santa Monica’s Nduka Amacular in the finals of the Southern Section Division IV individual wrestling championships Saturday at John Glenn High.

The road to the finals afforded few surprises; 10 of 13 top-seeded wrestlers advanced to their respective finals, seven of whom won.

In the 189-pound division, Bolsa Grande’s Adam Gilbert beat an old foe in the semifinals, only to lose just as he did last year in the finals.

In 1992, Playa del Rey St. Bernard’s Joe Henderson pinned Gilbert in the second round of Southern Section meet. Saturday, Gilbert was ready. “We had prepared for (the possibility of facing Henderson),”Gilbert said. “It was sort of a revenge thing.”

Gilbert, down 4-2, came back to beat top-ranked Henderson, 5-4 in the semifinals, but was pinned by Glenn’s Munib Haddad in the finals with 57 seconds left in the final period. It was his first loss of the season.

Heavyweight Chris Gallardo of La Puente Biship Amat reached the finals in an unconventional way. Leading 7-2 in the second period of his semifinal match with La Quinta’s Brian Miali, Gallardo quietly showed a referee teeth marks on the inside of his left arm. Miali was disqualified for illegal contact. But Gallardo was pinned by North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake’s Josh Minuto at 2:58 in the final.

The night’s longest match came at 140 pounds, where Fillmore’s Richard Preciado finally beat Norwalk’s Fernando Rodriquez, 5-4, in the second sudden-death overtime. The shortest match came at 145 pounds, as Andy Thomason of Hemet West Valley pinned Antelope Valley’s Mike Arhets 26 seconds into the second period.

Host Glenn finished the meet with 167.5 team points, as six wrestlers made it to the finals. Three won titles.