Righetti’s Not a Cinderella

Santa Maria Righetti’s wrestling team may have been the best-kept secret in the Southern Section this year, but the cat’s out of the bag now.

Righetti, runner-up to Moreno Valley Canyon Springs in the Southern Section Division III dual meet championships, had a meet-high four weight class winners at the Eastern Division championships Saturday night and finished in third place behind Covina Northview and Santa Ana.

“A couple of teams knew about us,” Righetti Coach Dutch Van Patten said. “But we’re kind of hidden up there.”

Righetti has logged a lot of miles and tallied some serious expense reports to get itself on the map. Two weeks ago, the team made the four-hour drive to Lakewood for the dual meet championships, stayed two nights and returned home.

The team then drove about five hours to Riverside Norte Vista High for the Eastern Division championships. Next, it’s another five-hour ride to Fountain Valley for the Masters.

Van Patten estimates that more than $6,000 will have been spent for the trips. What’s more, the school doesn’t have vans for the team so the team rents vans from a local car company.

It has all paid off, Van Patten said.

“I thought we had a chance to win [the Eastern Division championships],” he said. “Everything would have had to go right, but it didn’t.”

Things aren’t going to get any easier for Righetti next season. League realignment in the Central Coast region will make the new Pac-Five League one of the toughest in the Southern Section. Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles and Atascadero will join Righetti in the league.

“Wrestling is starting to catch on fire up there,” Van Patten said. “There is some good wrestling up there because of that, but the bad thing is that we’re all going to be in the same league next year. That’s gonna be tough.”

Vanguards on the move: El Modena has emerged as a force in recent weeks. The Vanguards edged Villa Park, 178.5-174, Saturday to win the Central Division championship--a division that also included Corona Centennial and Rosemead.

Orange El Modena was runner-up in the Division I dual meet championship. Saturday, El Modena had only two weight class wins--Daniel Contreras at 160 pounds and Kevin Lukes at heavyweight--but qualified a meet-best seven wrestlers for the Masters.

Heavy hitters: The heavyweight class at the Eastern Division championships offered some of the top competition at that weight in any California tournament this season. Arturo Basulto of Arroyo Grande pinned William Johnson of Tustin in 5:40 to win the title.

Johnson, who began the tournament undefeated this season, beat Adam Patino of Northview, 8-6, in the semifinals.

Basulto and Patino are ranked Nos. 3 and 4 in the state. Johnson is unranked, but has defeated three of the top six ranked heavyweights this year.

“I could easily see those three finishing in the top four at state,” Northview Coach David Ochoa said. “That was a tough weight in this tournament.”

Just a second: Santa Ana Calvary Chapel finished second in the Northern Division, marking just the second time in the last 11 years that the Eagles failed to win a Southern Section title. The two-time defending state champions have not won any tournaments this season.

Recap: Team champions from the Southern Section championships were as follows: Canyon Springs in the Northern; El Modena, Central; Temecula Valley, Southern; Northview, Eastern; Laguna Hills, Coastal; Chino Hills Ayala, Inland.

Peter Yoon