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Damian Calhoun. Sports Newsroom Assistant.

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 24, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORANGE – Heavyweight VJ Leuta put the wraps on another big weekend for the Servite wrestling team in his finals match in the Mann Classic.

Leuta won his finals match by fall, giving the Friars six individual champions, 14 medalists (entire lineup) and 382 team points to conclude the two-day tournament at Santiago Canyon College on Saturday.

The nearest competitor was Oregon’s Southridge High with 141 points.

“The team performance, I would say was pretty impressive,” Servite coach Alan Clinton said. “It was an outstanding team effort.”

Liam Cronin (106), Noah Blakley-Beanes (126), Wolfgang Bernal (132), Angel Cordova (152) and Gordon Livermore (171) were individual champions along with Leuta.

Cordova was selected Upper Weight MVP.

The Friars had eight other wrestlers who finished no worse than fourth in their weight class. The Friars began the day with all 14 wrestlers in the semifinals.

“You talk about unity, responsibility and everybody doing their part, they all stepped up,” Clinton said. “It wasn’t just one kid, it was a large group of young men, stepping up and doing what they needed to do.”

One of those was Leuta. The junior has taken big strides each week in his first season at the varsity level. Leuta won three matches by fall in the tournament.

He credits his dedicated offseason for much of his success.

“I put in the extra effort,” he said. “Before it was just wrestling season, but I came in during the summer, traveled with the team wrestling. I quit football to focus on wrestling.”

Leuta won the opening tournament at Westminster High and finished fifth last week at the Clovis West Shootout. He’s the second-ranked heavyweight in the county.

“He started committing to wrestling this summer as something he really wanted to do,” Clinton said of Leuta. “What he’s learned to do is how to use his body awareness, his body weight, size doesn’t really have an affect on him because his low center of gravity works well for him. He’s getting better each day.

“We have a few big guys we can throw at him in the (wrestling) room which helps out a lot and the competition he’s facing, and that’s big for him.”

Johnny Knowles (Calvary Chapel, 138), Jeremy Huang (El Modena, 145), Leangelo White (Western, 182) and Marina’s Ryker Coppa (195) were the other county individual champions.

Coppa won three of his matches by fall.

White defeated Michael Vasquez (Servite) in the finals, 4-2. The two met at the Cossarek Classic earlier with White edging Vasquez, 1-0, for third place.

Huang was the seventh seed at 145 pounds, but navigated his way through a tough weight class to the title.

Laguna Hills finished third in the team standings, with Santa Ana and Calvary Chapel coming in fourth and sixth, respectively. Servite B finished in eighth place.

Contact the writer: calhoun@ocregister.com