SEA VIEW LEAGUE WRESTLING : Irvine Sends Nine to Finals to Win Easily

Irvine dominated the Sea View League finals, sending nine of its 13 wrestlers into the finals with five winning titles Thursday at University High.

“This is really a relief from the pressure,” Irvine Coach John Phillips said. “Our guys wanted to have a good showing at this meet, and they certainly did that.”

Irvine finished with 208.5 points. University was second with 124, followed by Woodbridge (96), Tustin (85), Saddleback (67), Newport Harbor (60), Santa Margarita (53) and Corona del Mar (42).

Going into the finals, sixth-ranked Irvine (13-2-1, 6-0-1) was tied with University (12-13-1, 6-0-1).

“When we tied Uni back in January, that was our wake-up call,” Phillips said. “Since then, we have won two tournaments and took second in another. We wanted to show some people that we didn’t roll over and die.”

For Irvine, Peter Hamilton (103), Justin Meier (125), Chris Testerman (130), Lambert Lo (140) and Doug Reid (152) won their championship matches and will advance to the Southern Section individual championships.

Other winners were: University’s Koh Yamada (112), Woodbridge’s Tim Lee (119), Santa Margarita’s Andy Vander Ahe (135), University’s James Stephenson (145), Newport Harbor’s Chris Edwards (160), Tustin’s Shawn Ghotbi (171), Woodbridge Jessie Liu (189) and Saddleback heavyweight Jim Ambriz.