Temecula Valley Wins Division I Title Easily

All Jake Meredith needed to do was avoid getting pinned, but that thought never crossed his mind.

Instead, the Temecula Valley freshman staged a late comeback and sent his team and fans into a frenzy and clinched a 48-9 victory over San Clemente in the Southern Section Division I dual-meet championship at Anaheim Esperanza.

Meredith’s 7-6 victory in the 125-pound weight class gave the Golden Bears their third consecutive dual-meet title. They outscored four opponents, 215-57.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything except trying to win the match,” said Meredith, who had an injured knee and trailed, 5-0, in the second period before scoring five points in the last 1 minute 16 seconds.

Temecula Valley won the last eight matches against San Clemente, which was undefeated before meeting the Golden Bears.

Peter Yoon

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Covina Northview dominated the Division II meet at Colton, winning 50 of 56 matches.

The Vikings, who won the Division III title a year ago and finished 10th in the state tournament, defeated two-time defending champion North Torrance, 52-10, in the championship match.

Northview did not give up a point in six matches against North Torrance and twice won by 10.

Caleb Flores, who finished third in state for Northview last season at 103 pounds, won his 119-pound match against Garrett Gurrola, 17-2, one of four technical falls by the Vikings.

Northview also won at 112 by default when Shane Byun was disqualified for biting Freddy Valencia.

Dan Arritt

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After winning the inaugural Division III dual-meet title in 1992, Yucca Valley had been 0-5 in championship matches until Saturday, when the Trojans won 10 consecutive bouts to defeat Oxnard Pacifica, 45-21, at Anaheim Loara.

“Does this take care of the curse, so to speak?” said Coach Vlad Izboinkov of Yucca Valley (20-3), which lost to Northview in the finals last year. “I sure hope so, I don’t want to wait another 13 years.”

Pacifica (23-6), a third-year varsity program making its first appearance at the event, won the first match of the final when Jose Perez defeated Greg Stewart, 9-7, at 145 pounds, but the Tritons did not win again until Yucca Valley forfeited the last three matches with the victory sealed.

The Trojans got first-period pins from David Dencklau at 189 pounds and Vijay Maraj at 119, and a third-round pin by Jared Huntzinger at 152.

Yucca Valley’s Hart Ponder, Joe Kelly and Jason Moorhouse each pulled out consecutive close wins at 215, heavyweight and 103, respectively.

Chuck Schilken

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Willie Garcia won in the 140-pound division to give Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe a 37-34 victory over Alta Loma in the Division IV dual-meet final at West Covina.

Santa Fe (9-0) trailed, 34-33, before Garcia’s 13-2 major decision over Kyle Weigh.

“We had a lot of confidence,”Coach Sal Garcia said. “I knew if we were within six points, Willie could win it for us.”

Marcus Arona, JoJo Rodriguez and Ernie Garcia each had pins for the Chiefs.

Alta Loma (8-1) reached the finals for the fourth consecutive season, the first in Division IV. The Braves won Division V titles in 2002 and 2003.

Jonathan Abrams

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Garden Grove Santiago won its first dual-meet title by defeating Wildomar Elsinore, 33-32, in the Division VI final at San Marino.

Wildomar Elsinore built a 24-21 lead through eight of the 14 matches, but the Cavaliers, in their first final in school history, received a technical fall by Carlos Rangel at 112 pounds, a 12-6 victory by Gustavo Alcarez at 125, a pin by Ivan Sanchez at 130 and an 8-3 decision by Orlando Barragon at 135 to establish a 33-28 lead with one match left.