Santa Ana Cruises Past Santiago, 47-18

After opening the meet with three pins, fifth-ranked Santa Ana rolled past No. 4 Santiago, 47-18, in nonleague wrestling Tuesday at Santa Ana High.

Santa Ana Coach Scott Glabb said it was imperative that his team get an early lead.

“We don’t have that much experience at the middle and upper weights, so we had to score as many points as we could in the opening matches,” Glabb said. “I bumped some people up and shuffled some people around, so it was nice to get those pins early on.”

The opening pins came from Vince Aldana, at 103 pounds, over Alex Solano in 4 minutes 52 seconds. Santa Ana’s Tony Perez (112), who is ranked No. 1 in the county at 103, pinned George Ruiz in 2:47. Jose Leon pinned Santiago’s Gus Murrillo in 3:03 at 119 pounds.

Although Glabb was worried about his middle and upper weights, the Saints won key victories at 152, 160 and 171 pounds.

Mauricio Juaquin beat Santiago’s Aris Ulloa, 14-6, in the 152-pound match. And at 160 pounds, Hector Flores of Santa Ana got the takedown on Adrian Tellez in overtime to win, 11-9. Danny Briano beat Santiago’s Victor Martinez, 11-9.

“This was a good win for us,” Glabb said. “In our first match of the season, we lost to Magnolia, but Santiago beat them by 20 points. This gives us a good motivational boost.”

Santa Ana improved to 8-2.