Harvard-Westlake Back on Top : Wrestling: Wolverines win Mission League championship and eight individual titles.

Harvard-Westlake High’s domination of the Mission League wrestling finals was a throwback to the old days.

After finishing third in the league for two consecutive years, Coach Lew Roberts’ team returned to the form it displayed during a run of five titles.

Wolverine wrestlers qualified for the final in all 13 weight classes and won eight titles.

Harvard-Westlake easily won the team title with 203 1/2 points and Alemany finished second with 131.

Alemany’s James Castaneda won the 119-pound weight class when he used a beautiful spin move to pin Harvard-Westlake’s Brandon Roth 53 seconds into the second period.

Castaneda (36-0) finished fourth in the state meet last season in the 112-pound weight class.

“Right now, league and Southern Section finals are just a warmup for state,” he said. “The weight difference shouldn’t matter since I’ve set my mind on this since last year.”

Castaneda’s four-year record is 150-11.

Harvard cruised through the middle-weight divisions. In the 145-pound class, Ron Linares pinned Alemany’s Joe Gualtieri 40 seconds into the match, and Rand Waldron pinned Chris Garshal of Chaminade 20 seconds into their 154-pound match.

In the heavyweight division, Alemany’s Anthony Vitale (26-4) defeated Hersh Davis-Nitzberg (15-2) of Harvard by decision, 7-4.

Both of Davis-Nitzberg’s losses have come against Vitale.

“Anybody that can beat that guy (Davis-Nitzberg) is a pretty damn good wrestler,” Vitale said. “I know that I am using this victory as a springboard for the Southern Section finals.”

Vitale holds a 3-2 edge over Davis-Nitzberg. This season, Vitale went 2-1 against him.

Chaminade’s Nick Conver was transported to North Hollywood Hospital by ambulance with an injury he suffered in his match against Matt Howard of Harvard-Westlake.

He was diagnosed as having a bruised liver and a cracked rib then released.

Howard (16-1) defeated Conver by decision, 12-9.

Conver’s father, Tim, said: “It’s a shame that he lost this match. He almost pinned his opponent before he got hurt.”

Conver was moved aside from the main wrestling mat, where paramedics tended to him for approximately 20 minutes.