CENTURY LEAGUE WRESTLING : El Modena Takes Suspense Out of Things

With El Modena claiming the team championship so early in the game, the Century League wrestling finals looked elsewhere for drama and intrigue.

So a handful of individual match-ups provided the necessary fireworks.

In a staggering showing, El Modena powered its way to its second consecutive league title, smothering the competition by placing 12 wrestlers in the finals and scoring 222 1/2 points.

Runner-up Canyon, whose stronghold on league titles spanned 12 years before El Modena’s triumph last season, placed five wrestlers in the finals and scored 140 points in Friday night’s tournament at Foothill High. Four Villa Park wrestlers advanced to the finals and the Spartans were third with 110 points.

Of the Vanguards’ 12 finalists, seven won their weight classes, including repeat league champions junior Milo Ventimiglia (112) and seniors Juan Alvarez (135), Chris Jaime (45) and Brad Carlson (171).

One of El Modena’s most-watched wrestlers was also its newest, Savanna transfer Teak Sato, the 130-pounder who is top-ranked in the county and finished third in the state last year.

Sato sent ripples through wrestling circles when he transferred to El Modena last week for what he termed academic reasons. The Vanguards would have easily won the league title without him, but his presence certainly won’t hurt their Southern Section or State tournament chances.

“I was nervous,” Sato said of his El Modena debut, in which he pinned Foothill’s Matt Webb in 5:40. “But I’m always nervous. I could have wrestled better.”

The rematch of the county’s top-ranked 140-pounders, No. 1 Darryl Christian of Canyon and No. 2 David Wells of El Modena was closer than their first meeting, in which then second-ranked Christian upended then top-ranked Wells, 15-1. Christian still prevailed, this time by an 8-3 margin.

“I thought he’d try to be more defensive and it showed,” said Christian, a transfer from Grants Pass, Ore. “It didn’t seem like he really wanted to wrestle.”

Christian, who has already won a State championship in Oregon, wouldn’t mind adding a California title to his resume: “I’d like to,” he said. “Then all the hard work will have paid off.”

What paid off for first-time league champion Zane Koss of El Modena was a strategic last-second move that gave the senior 189-pounder a 12-10 overtime victory.

Koss scored on a takedown with 15 seconds left in the third period to draw even with Cott, 10-10, then scored the winning points seconds into the extra period on another takedown.

It was a tough loss for Cott, who led, 8-3, in the second period and had lost to Koss, 13-5, on Feb. 3.