Calvary Chapel Continues Its Reign at Masters Meet

Calvary Chapel cruised through the Southern Section Masters meet Saturday, crowning six champions and sending a record 10 wrestlers to the state finals next week.

“It’s great but it’s really hard,” said Coach John Azevedo, who had nine wrestlers advance in 1994. “It doesn’t get any easier and the pressure is tremendous. To try to qualify as many as you can is tough.”

While team scoring is downplayed in the two-day tournament, Calvary Chapel was the clear champion, scoring 239.5 points, 144 points ahead of second-place finisher Temecula Valley.

Eagles Mario Estrada (103 pounds), Anthony Rodriquez (112), Steve Esparza (130), Frank Gill (135), Willie Parks (171) and Conan Williams (189) won titles Saturday at Fountain Valley High.

Gill, who took fourth last year, was ecstatic after his 1-0 victory over Mike Sifuentes of Indio.

“It’s just awesome,” he said. “Last year, it wasn’t really a big deal. But this year, I’m a senior and I worked hard and put my faith in God and that’s why I think I won.”

Gill said the victory was not only a huge confidence booster, but his finish will have a big impact on the seedings for the state finals, which will be at University of the Pacific in Stockton.

But Gill didn’t want to worry about that just yet. Instead, he was thinking about some food.

“I’ll be celebrating with lots of deserts tonight,” Gill said. “But I’ll be running on Sunday and getting ready for state.”

While Azevedo said he had confidence in all of his wrestlers, he was surprised by Rodriquez’s victory over defending state and Masters champion Orlando Galvan of Loara.

Rodriquez, who transferred from Brethren Christian last fall, took seventh at Masters and state last year.

“That was a big win for Anthony,” Azevedo said. “He never faced [Galvan] this year, but he wrestled a good match.”

Rodriquez beat Andrew Dominquez of Santa Maria Righetti in the semifinal round to advance to the final, where he beat Galvan, 5-3.

“I just kept in his face,” Rodriquez said. “I didn’t want to let him intimidate me. I knew I could take him.”

In a show of Calvary Chapel strength, Williams and Parks dominated their final matches, with Williams pinning defending state champion Chris Lopez of Covina Northview in 5 minutes 56 seconds and Parks winning by technical fall over Ty Blair of Dana Hills.

Including the Eagles, Orange County had nine champions.

Although Galvan was unable to defend his 112-pound title, his brother, Josh, won the 119-pound title, beating Troy Elam of Downey, 11-0.

Brian LeMay (145) of Capistrano Valley won his first Masters title with a 6-1 victory over top-seeded Josh O’Hara of Redlands East Valley. And Frank Richmond of Kennedy took the 152-pound crown.

“He’s really been overlooked this year in the rankings,” Kennedy Coach Tom Malich said about Richmond. “But that’s fine with me if nobody knows who he is. He lets his wrestling do the talking.”

Richmond, who was unseeded in the meet, recorded a technical fall and two pins, including a win by fall over Andy Lopez of Long Beach Jordan in the final.

“It doesn’t really bother me to go unnoticed,” Richmond said. “But I worked hard to get here and I knew I could win. As for state, I have my goals, but it’s one match at a time, and you have to focus on each and every match.”

Santa Ana, which along with Calvary Chapel qualified 11 for the Masters, was able to advance only three wrestlers to state, Hugo Guzman (103), Ozvaldo Avalos (152) and Wyatt Howard (189).

Doug Yadon (125) of Villa Park and Gonzalo Meza (152) of Buena Park took third place.

In all, 36 county wrestlers advanced to the state finals.