HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING PREVIEW : Jardine Points Toward a Title

Keith Jardine was caught red-handed, and it amounted to more than a fistful of frustration.

The tableau: Last season’s City Section wrestling finals at San Fernando High. Heavyweight championship match between Gerardo Anaya of San Fernando and Jardine, the defending City champion from Canoga Park. Overtime. Score tied, 3-3.

Two minutes into overtime, the referee suddenly stops the bout and raises Anaya’s arm over his head. Jardine, he rules, has grabbed Anaya’s singlet and is penalized one point. Anaya is declared champion.

“I was kind of in shock,” Jardine said. “I said, ‘Oh, really?’ I didn’t think it was even that big a deal.”

It was. By virtue of the victory, Anaya advanced to the state finals in Stockton and Jardine stayed home.

In this, his senior season, Jardine has kept his fingers to himself and his opponents on the run. For the second year in a row, he is 25-0 entering the City finals, which are today at El Camino Real.

“I’m thinking that there is no way anybody is going to beat me,” Jardine said.

The Southern Section Masters Meet also will take place today, at Fountain Valley High. Both meets are qualifying tournaments for next weekend’s state finals at University of the Pacific in Stockton.

From the Masters, the top seven qualifiers and one alternate in each of 13 weight classes will advance. The tournament includes 208 wrestlers from the section’s four divisions.

Seventeen area wrestlers will compete, including Division I champion Sean Burns of Agoura (171 pounds), and Division IV champions Josh Minuto of Harvard-Westlake (heavyweight), James Castenada of Alemany (103) and Richard Preciado of Fillmore (140).

In the City meet, which includes 90 wrestlers from nine schools, only the champion in each category will advance.

Jardine, who advanced to the state meet as a sophomore, said he will be motivated today by the memory of that long, lonely weekend spent last season while the state’s best were still on the mat.

“That’s everybody’s goal, to go to the state (meet),” Jardine said. “And I was just sitting around.”

Jardine said he had complained to the referee that Anaya had been tugging at his singlet throughout the match but that nothing was called. With 16 seconds left in regulation, Anaya tied the match when Jardine was penalized for stalling.

“He was angry that he lost, but in all honesty he was angry at himself,” Canoga Park Coach Rudy Lugo said. “He said, ‘I should have wrestled better so that one point wouldn’t have made a difference.’ He was frustrated.”

Two of Jardine’s teammates are favorites to repeat as City champions. Junior Phil Duffield (189 pounds) also is 25-0. Duffield has not wrestled since he suffered a concussion in a tournament at El Camino Real on Jan. 30. But he is fully recovered, Lugo said.

Senior Rafael Palacios (145), 26-1, won the City title at 135 pounds last season.

El Camino Real’s David Duran (125), 19-6, will try for a third consecutive City championship after winning titles at 103 and 112 pounds.

The City’s final round is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The Masters’ finals tentatively are scheduled for 4 p.m.

Southern Section Masters

Wrestling Meet

Area entrants, including finish in Southern Section finals:

103 pounds

James Castenada (Alemany), Division IV champion

Terrance Finley (Antelope Valley), Division IV runner-up

Jerry Escoto (Channel Islands), 5th in Division I

Ryan Atherton (Ventura). Division I runner-up

125 pounds

Bobby Roman (Oxnard), Division I runner-upCisco Gerardo (Simi Valley), third in Division II

140 pounds

Richard Preciado (Fillmore), Division IV champion

Chris Karlowski (Ventura), fifth in Division I

145 pounds

Mike Arhets (Antelope Valley), Division IV runner-up

Justin Jackson (Ventura), Division I runner-up

152 pounds

Willie Arreola (Alemany), third in Division IV

(qualified as an alternate)

160 pounds

Rich Moakley (Highland), Division IV runner-up

Mario Corona (Oxnard), Division I runner-up

171 pounds

Sean Burns (Agoura), Division I champion

189 pounds

Andy Crisp (Westlake), third in Division I

Heavyweight

Josh Minuto (Harvard-Westlake), Div. IV champion

Jim Starr (Rio Mesa), fifth in Division IV

Note: Today’s meet begins at 7 a.m. with weigh-ins and wrestling begins at 9 a.m. Finals are expected to begin about 4 p.m. The top seven finishers in each weight class at today’s meet will advance to the state championships; the eighth-place finisher qualifies as an alternate.