Santa Ana’s Quest Gets Cut Short

Santa Ana’s drive toward a state title came to a halt Saturday as its top two wrestlers were unable to advance to the finals of the state high school championships at the University of Pacific’s Spanos Center.

In unexpected outcomes, Jose Najera (112 pounds), a 1998 state runner-up, and Jose Leon (119) lost their semifinal matches. In addition, Santa Ana lost three wrestlers in Saturday’s consolation rounds which reduced its scoring potential for the remainder of the tournament.

As a result, the Saints, who were in second place after Friday, finished the two-day tournament in fourth.

Poway won the title, which was settled in the last match as heavyweight Fred Fong of Poway outlasted Ben Fox of Clovis Buchanan to win in double overtime and give Poway a two-point edge (84.5) over second-place Hughson. Clovis was third with 69 points.

Santa Ana still had the best finish in the school’s history with 67.5 points, the top finish for an Orange County team.

The Saints scored with two third-place finishes. Steve Avalos, at 145 pounds, gave the Saints some points when he pinned Kenneth Cook of Fremont American in 4 minutes 40 seconds.

“That was a big win for us,” said Saint Coach Scott Glabb. “It put us right there with Brethren Christian, but without our guys in the finals, it made a big difference.”

Leon, a senior, also took third, defeating Ricky Garcia of Sante Fe Springs Sante Fe, 8-4. Najera, also a senior, finished fifth in the 112- pound weight class. He beat Phillip Marquez of Bakersfield Foothill, 5-2.

Brethren Christian came to the tournament with only three wrestlers. However, Brethren Christian ended the contest with a good showing, scoring 65 points for fifth place.

Junior Mike Simpson, the county’s only champion, won his 119-pound match in dramatic fashion, as the Brethren Christian junior chose to let his opponent, Nate Ybarra of Arroyo Grande up from the down position, allowing him one point and a 3-2 lead with less than 49 seconds left in front of an announced crowd of 6,400.

“I knew I could get him.” Simpson said. “I’m a last second kind of wrestler. I do my best wrestling in the last seconds of the match.”

Simpson got a takedown at the buzzer to win the match, 4-3.

Brethren Christian’s Steve Garcia (130), who took fifth last year at 119, was also in the finals.

A close match up until the last few seconds, Garcia’s opponent, Ben Martinez of Tulare Union, had wrestled Garcia twice before, winning both times.

Martinez, whose record for the last two years was 104-0, was a Junior National Greco Champion and was expected to dominate. But Garcia gave him a close match and had a 7-6 lead with seconds left. But when Garcia hurt his knee and could not put any weight on it, Garcia could only hope to ride out Martinez and hold on for the win. Martinez took advantage of the situation and was able catch Garcia off guard and pin him at 5:03.

“He got caught and he got stuck,” Warrior Coach Mark Cody said. “But he couldn’t do anything else. But that’s wrestling. And sometimes you have to finish the best you can.”