Ricardo Navarrete’s letterman jacket is in line for an update.
Navarrete, a senior with Santa Ana, has his CIF placing from his previous two years stitched on his jacket, a third-place and a fifth place from the previous two season.
The next update should include something along the lines of: CIF Champion.
Navarrete finished first at 126 pounds at the CIF-SS Southern Division Individual Championships at Marina High and helped the Saints capture their first CIF title since 2003. The Saints finished with 218.5 points.
“It feels great,” he said. “I’ve worked hard the whole year, and I just worked by way up there.”
Navarrete started the second day with a victory by fall in the semifinals. In the finals against Nick Camacho of Paramount, after a scoreless first period, Navarrete scored two takedowns and an escape in the second period to take a 5-1 lead. In the third, he sealed the match with a couple more takedowns.
Navarrete was one of nine Santa Ana wrestlers who qualified for next week’s CIF-SS Masters Meet.
The top five wrestlers at each weight class are guaranteed a spot in next week’s tournament.
Joey Daniel (195) was the other individual champion for the Saints.
Ricardo Solorio (113) and Alex Blanco (220) finished second.
Miguel Ramos (132), German Prudencio (138), Ed Bilezekchian (145) were all third. Jose Mata (106) and Ed Anguiano (285) were fourth to help the secure the title.
“I’m very happy because our coach (Scott Glabb) really wanted it (CIF title), and we really wanted it,” Navarrete said. “We talked about this the whole year and we finally accomplished it. Everyday he encouraged us to work hard.”
Navarrete said the key for the Saints’ success this weekend and this season has been not overlooking any aspect of wrestling.
“We worked on all the little things this year,” he said. “Making weight, practicing right, eating right … last year, a lot of people didn’t make weight and didn’t take care of the little things.”
Fountain Valley’s Karson Ayres (138) and Marina’s Peter McCoy (152) were the other county individual champions.
Fountain Valley’s Cole Brisbine defeated Newport Harbor’s Valdemar Gomez, 2-1 to secure fifth place at heavyweight.
Friday, Brisbine suffered a 3-2 defeat to Gomez.
At the Inland Division: Calvary Chapel started the second day in fifth place, but thanks to four individual champions (Elijah Palacio, 120; Johnny Knowles, 145; Justin Thomas, 160 and Jeremy Thomas, 170) were able to come away with the CIF team title, finishing with 214 points at Temecula Valley High.
Palacio was selected Lower Weight MVP, while Jeremy Thomas was the Upper Weight MVP, winning five matches by fall.
Calvary Chapel had eight qualifiers for next week’s CIF-SS Masters Meet.
Servite finished second with 212.5 points. The Friars had seven qualifiers.
At the Eastern Division: Laguna Hills captured its 13th CIF title, finishing with 242 points and nine Masters qualifiers at Citrus Hill High in Perris.
Phillip Zamora (145) earned Lower Weight MVP honors, winning three matches by fall and one by technical fall.
San Clemente’s Tyler Meisinger (152) was the Upper Weight MVP. His teammate Kyle Marshall finished first at 170 pounds.
Josh Kawaguchi (Sonora, 160) and Gerardo Hernandez (Capistrano Valley, 182) also won titles.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
