Calvary Chapel Gets Victory Close to Home

SANTA ANA — Calvary Chapel, electing to stay close to home and enter the El Modena Invitational, won the two-day wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday at Rancho Santiago.

Calvary Chapel decided against attending a tournament in Reno because of flooding in the area.

For Calvary Chapel, the 30-team El Modena tournament posed no threat to their No. 1 state ranking.

The Eagles won the tournament with 249 points. El Modena finished second with 171.5, and Santa Ana was third with 167.

For the Eagles, Ty Wilcox and Joe Calavitta won their championship matches. Wilcox, who was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler for the upper weights, was wrestling up from his normal 160-pound weight class to 171 pounds. He pinned Danny Mathis of Riverside Norte Vista in 4 minutes 45 seconds. Calavitta, who also was bumped up a weight to 145, pinned Sam Lahidji of Woodbridge in 3:34.

Other Calvary Chapel wrestlers who won: Jay McGuffin (140) beat Eric Trejo of Norte Vista, 11-6; Arsen Aleksanyan (152), who pinned Charlie Williams of El Modena in 1:10; Mike Bigrigg (189), who also won by fall, beat Mike Albee of Moreno Valley Canyon Springs in 3:28 and Josh Saul (215), who beat Philip Alejandrino of Chino, 12-6. Tino Archuleta, who was wrestling at 130, lost to Carlos Blanco of Canyon Springs, 15-7.

In other championship matches, Santa Ana’s Fernando Serratos helped the Saints to their third-place finish by winning all of his 119-pound matches, including the final where he pinned Armando Orozco of Orange in 2:46. Serratos was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler in the lower weights. Tony Perez won the 103-pound final for the Saints, beating Danny Arriaga of Chino, 15-9.

Loara’s Tony Aparicio (112) and Alexander Martini (125) also were champions.