Hawks Get Mad, Win Invitational

Before the start of Saturday’s Laguna Hills wrestling invitational, few believed defending champion Laguna Hills would be a factor in the tournament.

But the unranked Hawks wound up winning the 17-team event, scoring 183 points, nearly 40 more than runner-up San Clemente. Irvine, ranked sixth in the county, finished third with 143 points and ninth-ranked Capistrano Valley was fifth with 92 1/2.

“This is sweet,” Laguna Hills Coach Cliff Jarmie said. “Our kids wrestled like madmen. They’ve been working so hard the last three weeks and to be honest, they’ve been a little [upset] about the disrespect they have been getting this season.”

Though Laguna Hills only had two champions--Garrett Dulaney at 171 and Thanh Nguyen at 112--the Hawks placed three other wrestlers in finals.

“A lot of people seemed to count us out,” Jarmie said, noting that his team hasn’t been ranked in the county top 10 all season. “But we’ve beat some ranked teams this year and our kids really resented the snub they received.”

The tournament also featured some fine individual matches.

San Clemente’s Mateo Headrick beat El Toro’s Damian de Beaubien, top ranked in the county, for the title at 215 pounds.

Despite the narrow final margin of 6-5, Headrick appeared to have complete control of the match.

“I’ve been looking forward to this all season,” said Headrick, who is ranked third. “He was ranked first so it was a challenge to beat him. I’ve actually had harder matches this year. . . . but I had some fun out there.”

Headrick was named the top wrestler of the upper weights in the tournament.

Junior Paul Virgin of San Clemente, who was seeded third, pinned Rusty Zonis of Mira Costa in 5 minutes 17 seconds, after trailing, 6-0, to win the 103-pound championship.

At 125 pounds, Irvine’s Andrew Pena had the fastest pin in a final, stopping Kimble Walsh of Laguna Hills in 51 seconds. Pena, ranked third in the county, was named the tournament’s top wrestler in the lower weights.

Other county champions were Irvine’s Chris Rush (135), who beat Baldwin Park Sierra Vista’s Peter Romero, 15-9; Irvine’s Alan Rush (145), who pinned Supe Garcia of Laguna Hills at 1:39; Capistrano Valley’s Scott Elliott (119), who beat Peter Hamilton of Irvine, 5-3; San Clemente’s Chris Sayer (130), who beat Ryan McNaughton of Laguna Hills on a technical fall; Loara’s Richard Meza, who beat Tim Imada of Granada Hills on a technical fall and Dustin Bianchi of Foothill, who beat Brett Lobel of Diamond Bar, 8-3.