Section Wrestling Tournaments to Begin

The Southern Section Divisional Dual Meet Wrestling Championships will be held today, beginning at 10 a.m., at four sites.

Division I competition will be at San Clemente High, Division II at Temecula Valley High, Division III at Corona Centennial and Division IV at Santiago High. Sixteen teams will compete in each division in a single-elimination format.

Calvary Chapel, ranked No. 1 in the state and fifth in the nation, will defend its Division I title against, among others, El Modena, the Century League champions and the county’s second-ranked team.

In the last three years, Calvary Chapel has dominated its dual-meet championship matches, beating Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, 44-10, last season after winning consecutive Division III titles.

Other county teams in the Division I title hunt are South Coast League champion San Clemente, Capistrano Valley, Orange and Orange League champion Anaheim, which is ranked fourth in the county.

Sunset League champion Esperanza, the county’s No. 5 team, and Sea View League champion Irvine, ranked seventh, will be the county’s top teams in the Division II championships. Esperanza is seeded second behind defending champion Temecula Valley, and Irvine is seeded third. Kennedy, El Dorado and Fountain Valley are the other county teams in this division.

In Division III, Santa Ana, the county’s No. 3 team, is the top-seeded team. Last season, the Saints were defeated in the finals by Atascadero, 39-25. Pacific Coast League champion Laguna Hills and Freeway League champion Troy also will compete in III.

Santiago, seeded second to Norwalk Glenn, will put its undefeated 6-0 dual-meet record on the line in Division IV. Garden Grove is the county’s other team in this division.