SOUTHERN SECTION WRESTLING : Calvary Chapel Uses Meet for State Tuneup

A few short years ago, Coach John Azevedo had to show his wrestlers how to put their head gear on their noggins. Now, Calvary Chapel will travel to Stockton as one of the favorites to win the CIF State meet.

At the Masters meet Saturday at Fountain Valley High, the Eagles seized one last chance to throttle their Southern Section opponents.

With two champions, one runner-up and three third-place finishers, the Eagles dominated Saturday’s meet. Calvary Chapel’s six qualifiers were one more than Indio and Norwalk Glenn will send to Stockton.

El Modena had four wrestlers qualify for the State meet, including 140-pound champion David Wells.

For Calvary Chapel, Dane Valdez, at 119 pounds, and Joey Coughran, at 130, won championships. Mauricio Mora was a runner-up at 135. And Shane Valdez (112), Josh Holiday (140) and Ed Mosley (145) each finished third.

Wali Sibrie, a heavyweight from Buena Park, also won a Masters meet title, defeating Sam Genzone of Paso Robles.

Seven Eagles started on Saturday, and six advanced. Not a bad day’s work, Azevedo said.

“Dane pretty much dominated,” he said.

Dane Valdez (39-0) kept his unbeaten record intact with a 10-7 victory over Jesse Calderon of Indio. He posted an 8-5 semifinal victory over Jose Enriquez of Glenn, the defending State champion at 112 pounds.

Shane Valdez (50-1) lost his first match this season when Sean Kim of Montebello Schurr defeated him, 5-4, in the semifinals.

“(Losing) probably helped Shane for next week,” Azevedo said. “Sometimes it’s better to lose and get it over with rather than take all that pressure to State. He’ll be fine.”

As for Mora, who was pinned by San Clemente’s Zac Tapia, Azevedo said: “He’s bummed. It’s always hard to lose by getting caught like that.”

Ever since he’d lost to Mora at the Five Counties tournament on Jan. 16, Tapia had been eagerly awaiting a rematch.

He made the most of it, hammering Mora to his back with 15 seconds left in the first period of their championship match.

“It couldn’t get any better than that,” Tapia said. “I had some revenge to get out. I wasn’t trying to focus on either (Mora or Canyon’s Dave Gayer).”

Tapia predicted that Gayer would be his opponent in the final, but Mora defeated Gayer, 4-3, in the quarterfinals, then routed Clint Maldanado of La Mirada, 23-8, in the semifinals.

“Personally, I thought Gayer would beat him,” Tapia said. “I knew either one or the other was going to be tough.”

Meet notes

The top seven finishers in each of the 13 weight divisions advanced to the CIF State meet next Friday and Saturday at Stockton. . . . Eric Escobedo of Huntington Beach, expected to be one of those advancing, was disqualified from the tournament for flagrant misconduct during his second-round match against Albert Romero of Moreno Valley Canyon Springs at 160 pounds.