Irvine Battles Its Way Past Tough El Toro in Wrestling

Josh Worthington lost the match but helped win the meet.

Irvine’s Worthington needed to avoid being pinned by El Toro senior John Hamberson in the heavyweight match because a fall would give El Toro enough points to win the Sea View League dual meet.

Worthington tried everything he could before losing by decision, 6-0.

Four team points to El Toro; a 33-31 meet victory for Irvine.

“I told him whatever he does, keep off your back,” Irvine Coach John Phillips said.

“I didn’t want this thing to be determined by the heavyweights, but that’s how it turned out.”

Irvine’s Rafael Farias overwhelmed Greg Jones at 217 pounds, getting a pin in 2 minutes 56 seconds. That gave the Vaqueros a five-point lead going into the heavyweight match.

El Toro’s Jon Agajanian scored first at 105 pounds on a freak pin of Albert Fu in 5:02. Fu, ahead by four points in the last seconds of the third period, inadvertently pinned himself.

Irvine (16-0, 5-0) got its own freak pin at 147 pounds. El Toro’s Ryan Bortolussi was leading Irvine’s Shai Kalansky midway in the third period, 10-2. But Kalansky took advantage of a Bortolussi move to gain position and put Bortolussi’s shoulder to the mat for a fall at 3:30.

Irvine’s Shawn Lunnon had a key win at 121 pounds. Lunnon defeated T.J. Monge in overtime, 5-3. El Toro is 16-2, 4-1.