COUNTY ALL-STAR WRESTLING : Marquez’s Pin Provides Revenge, Team’s Victory

For some wrestlers, Friday’s Orange County All-Star Wrestling Match was a chance to see some coaches, teammates and opponents for the last time.

For others, it was an opportunity to settle an old score.

Katella’s Chris Marquez got his chance against Irvine’s Cris Testerman at 137 pounds, and his pin was the difference in the Red team’s 31-25 victory over the Blue team at Esperanza High.

The victory for Marquez also helped erase a bad memory of losing to Testerman in the quarterfinals of last month’s Southern Section Division II championships.

Other wrestlers who won their rematches were heavyweight David Wheeler of Cypress and 132 Alexi Yanuaria of Anaheim.

Wheeler lost an overtime match to Mark Zolikoff of Laguna Hills in the Masters, but defeated Zolikoff 5-0, on Friday.

Yanuaria, who lost to Irvine’s Jeremy Brown at the Masters, won a 5-2 decision over Brown with a near fall late in the third period.

El Dorado’s Ismail Abdullah avoided the same fate as Brown and Zolikoff when he managed a reverse against Capistrano Valley’s Scott McConnel in sudden death to win a 4-2 decision at 162 pounds.

Katella’s Eric Schirmacher, who inadvertently showed up to the event three hours early, clenched the victory for the Red team with a 5-1 decision over Matt Flake of Esperanza at 173 pounds.

Saddleback heavyweight Jim Ambriz was 1 1/2 hours late, but still managed the most one-sided victory with a 16-4 major decision over Anaheim’s Daryn Leimbach.

Because Ambriz was late for the match, he missed a chance to wrestle his scheduled match against Wheeler.

“I would have liked to have wrestled Wheeler,” Ambriz said, “but I got stuck in traffic and had trouble finding the place.”

Other winners included Anthony Pham (105) of Loara, Milo Ventimiglia (114) of El Modena, Justin Meier (127) of Irvine, Mark Stephenson (142) of Capistrano Valley, Brandon Meier (142) of Calvary Chapel, Mike Greco (147) of Laguna Hills, Casey Elliott (162) of Laguna Hills, John Pelzer (191) of Troy and Lamarr Toomes (191) of Magnolia.