Ventura Falls in Division I Dual Meet Final

Ventura High’s hopes of winning the Southern Section Division I dual meet wrestling title Thursday night might have ended before the first wrestler stepped on the mat.

Ventura Coach Paul Clementi held out Ryan Atherton, one of the best 103-pound wrestlers in Southern California, from the final against host El Modena. The Cougars lost the opening match and any possible momentum as the Vanguards easily defeated Ventura, 36-20.

Clementi said Atherton, the second-place finisher in last weekend’s Southern Section individual championships, suffered what Clementi described as an upper body injury and is questionable for Saturday’s Southern Section Master’s meet.

In his place was sophomore Ricardo Cardona, who was 26-1 in junior varsity matches this season.

Cordona stayed with Bao Nguyen, leading, 5-3, after two periods before being out-pointed, 7-5.

Combined with El Modena’s Milo Ventimiglia’s 17-8 decision over David Johnson at 112 pounds, the Vanguards took an early 7-0 lead and controlled the match.

“Our win at 112 was a huge boost for us,” El Modena Coach Paul Clinton said. “We’d expected to give something up early.”

Ventura (18-2) made a brief comeback with a strong performance by Nate Tafoya at 119. Tafoya beat Joshua Wagner, 15-2, to give Ventura its first points.

But El Modena was just getting to the strength of its lineup.

Section champions Teak Sato (130) and Juan Alvarez (135) both dominated their opponents.

Sato (43-1) had eight takedowns over Jesus Solis before gaining a technical fall eight seconds into the final period. “Sometimes I just get into a rhythm and feel like I can take my opponent down no matter what,” Sato said. “Tonight I felt that way.”

Alvarez scored the first pin of the match by defeating Justin Boynton at 3 minutes 37 seconds.

Ventura, desperate for points, moved Chris Karlowsky, a Master’s qualifier, up from 140 pounds to 145 to avoid former Section champion David Wells.

The strategy backfired when Wells (45-5) pinned replacement Bryan Doss at 3:11, and Karlowsky was outpointed, 6-1, by Christopher Jaime.

“I don’t think any one weight mattered,” Karlowsky said. “We just didn’t wrestle well tonight.”