STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT : As Expected, Calvary Chapel Builds Impressive First-Day Lead

Calvary Chapel’s statement was a deafening roar to Santa Ana’s humble peep.

In its quest for a second consecutive State wrestling championship, Calvary Chapel made impressive gains during Friday’s opening rounds of the two-day tournament at Pacific’s Spanos Center. After three rounds, Calvary Chapel, with 70.5 points, held a 34-point lead over second-place Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, which scored 36.5.

To illustrate the Eagles’ dominance, their first-day point tally is only 8.5 shy of the 79 they compiled after both days last year. Five of Calvary Chapel’s eight qualifiers--Joe Calavitta, Shane and Dane Valdez, Josh Holiday and Ed Mosley--advanced to the semifinals.

But it was Santa Ana that carved its own niche in school history. With 103-pounder Roger Santiago’s quarterfinal victory, Santa Ana assured itself of its first State place winner. Santiago advanced to today’s semifinals with a 7-6 victory over Chino’s Paco Arriaga.

Santiago wrestled Arriaga in Masters and had a bigger margin of victory there, but found himself tied, 5-5 and the clock running. Santiago let Arriaga go for the escape and a 6-5 lead, but Santiago took him down with four seconds remaining for the semifinal berth.

“I’m surprised, I didn’t think I’d place here,” Santiago said. ‘My goal was to win CIF and place here, but not this high. It’s a tough tournament.”

“I figured (Santiago would) place, but not this high,” Santa Ana Coach Scott Glabb said. “Roger deserves it. He’s worked very hard and I had a lot of faith in him. He has a lot of fight in him.”

So did a number of county wrestlers. Out of 31, 11 advanced through the championship rounds and there are nine local representatives out of 13 classes. At 103 and 140, the county qualified two semifinalists. Calavitta joined Santiago at 103; and Canyon’s Darryl Christian and Edison’s Alfred Frausto represent the 140 class.

Christian, a two-time state champion in Oregon, is on track to conquer two states. The section and Masters champion has easily advanced through this draw, with a pin, a 7-2 and a 17-2 victory. Frausto, ranked eighth in the state, defeated Calvary Chapel’s Danny Robinson, 7-5, in the quarterfinals.

Missing from the 140 Final Four was El Modena’s David Wells, runner-up to Christian in the Southern Section and Masters meet. Wells was a 4-1 loser to Madera’s Moises Perez, last year’s State runner-up.

Of El Modena’s four qualifiers, only Juan Alvarez (135) advanced to the fourth round. Teak Sato, who lost last year’s 125-pound State title to Eric Guerrero of San Jose Independence, meet Guerrero in the quarterfinals and fell, 17-5. Chris Jaime (145) was a first-round causality.

Capistrano Valley’s bid to send two wrestlers to the semifinals fell short when 160-pounder Alec Laidlaw lost, 12-10, to Moreno Valley Canyon Springs’ Albert Romero. Teammate Terry Tuzzolino advanced with a 7-0 decision over Covina Schurr’s Jonathan DyReyes.

Buena Park hopefuls Vince Virgen (130) lost in Round 2, and heavyweight Wali Sibrie won three rounds and earned a semifinal showdown with Greg Ford of Whittier. Ford has defeated Sibrie three times this season, but Sibrie defeated Ford here in the semifinals last year.

Wrestling Notes

Saddleback junior Jim Ambriz was forced to default his first-round heavyweight match when he suffered a neck injury against Escalon’s Steve Scott. Ambriz, who aggravated a neck muscle earlier in the week, walked out of the arena on his own. . . . Calvary Chapel’s Joe Calavitta was one of nine freshmen of 416 wrestlers in the tournament, one of four to win first-round matches and the lone freshman in the semifinals. . . . Shane Valdez’s quarterfinal victory marked his 199th career high school triumph and the third consecutive year he has reached the State semifinals. Valdez is 199-8 in four years and is undefeated (55-0) this season.