Moorpark Wrestlers Lose in Final

Hopes for an individual championship eluded Moorpark College on Saturday in the state wrestling finals at Santa Rosa College.

Moorpark’s Todd Hoult and Jason Pratt both finished second after losing in the championship match.

Modesto freshman Brian Campbell (32-1) slipped past Hoult (28-7) at 190 pounds, 4-3, and Fresno’s Alphonzo Tucker (37-0) lived up to his top-seeding billing by defeating Pratt (30-7) at 158 pounds, 12-6.

Fresno City College claimed its fifth team title, edging Cerritos, 116.5 to 104.25. West Valley finished a distant third with 74.25 points.

Moorpark, which finished fifth in the team scoring with 55.75 points, qualified nine wrestlers and Coach John Keever hoped to have three in the finals. But 142-pounder Jorge Ruiz, seeded No. 4, lost in Friday’s quarterfinals and finished fifth with three victories in the consolation bracket.

Ruiz, who finished third in the state meet at 134 pounds in 1992, defeated No. 8 Joe Lasaga of Skyline, 3-2, early Saturday but lost, 5-2, to Jason Gear of Bakersfield. Ruiz defeated No. 6 Craig Welk of Palomar, 7-5, for fifth place.

Moorpark’s Dan Burdis, seeded No. 8 at 177 pounds, also placed fifth. Burdis defeated Tim Bruce of Diablo Valley, 6-2, but was pinned in 1:36 by Soviet-born Bisolt Detsiev of Cerritos, who was seeded second. Burdis defeated No. 5 Navif Abdullah of Rancho Santiago, 3-2.