Mater Dei’s Perez pins down elusive Trinity League title

Noah Blakely, left, of Servite, tries to get the advantage on Jacob Parent of Mater Dei in their 128 lb. match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Jacob Parent, left, of Mater Dei struggles to get out from underneath Noah Blakely of Servite in their 128 lb. match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Jed Smith, right, of Mater Dei makes a move on Kevin Vidal of Servite in their 162 lb. bout Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Mater Dei's Jed Smith, right, puts a hold on Servite's Kevin Vidal during their 162 lb. match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Orange Lutheran's Matt Hernandez, bottom, gets into trouble during the 184 lb. match with Servite's Johnny Beltran Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Orange Lutheran's Matt Hernandez, right, makes a move to try to get the advantage on Servite's Johnny Beltran during Friday's 184 lb. bout at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Servite's Parker Saltzman, left, moves to free himself from the grasp of St. John Bosco's Gabriel Medrano during their 197 lb. match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Servite's Parker Saltzman, left, pushes Gabriel Medrano of St. John Bosco away during their 197 lb. match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
David White of Mater Dei dares his opponent Cameron Amador of Servite to bring it during their heavyweight match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.
Mater Dei's David White, right, tries to get out of the grasp of Servite's Cameron Amador during their heavyweight match Friday at the Trinity League Wrestling Finals.

By Damian Calhoun | dcalhoun@scng.com | Daily Breeze

February 14, 2014 at 9:48 p.m.

BELLFLOWER – Trevor Perez finally captured that elusive Trinity League championship.

Perez, a junior for the Mater Dei wrestling team had advanced and lost in the league finals the previous two years.

Friday, he was right back in the finals at St. John Bosco, this time against Servite’s Angel Cordova at 147 pounds. Perez pinned Cordova at 1:13 of the match.

“It feels good,” he said. “I think I did a good job. I pinned a kid in the semifinals and in the finals, I got on top, put him to his back and got the pin.”

Perez was one of three Monarch wrestlers to win individual titles. Johnny McLaughlin (122) and Jed Smith (162) were the others. The Monarchs, in their third year under coach Luis Renteria, had nine qualifiers who will move on to the CIF-SS Southern Division Individual Championships next weekend at Santiago Canyon College.

“We brought 10, nine qualified, three champions and a couple of seconds,” Renteria said. “I think it is good for the school and for the program. This is something to build on.

“I told the guys we expected at least nine or 10 to qualify. They came through. Our goal is always high. Whether we have 80 or 20 kids, we expect a lot from them and they came through.”

Servite qualified all 14 wrestlers for next week, including five champions, Noah Blakely (128), Johnny Beltran (184), Parker Saltzman (197), Kyle Patterson (222) and heavyweight Cameron Amador.

“You always learn from what you just did,” Servite coach Alan Clinton said. “We wrestled well. To get 14 (qualifiers) out of this league is tough, but we learned some areas where we can improve upon (next week).

Saltzman’s victory was one that impressed Clinton.

“That was a big win for him,” Clinton said. “He’s only a sophomore.”

St. John Bosco also had five champions (Julian Gendreau, brothers Zahid and Anthony Valencia, Joseph Dominguez and Matt Williams) and qualified 11. Santa Margarita’s Nathan Fier was the champion at 108 pounds, avenging an earlier loss to Servite’s Liam Cronin in the final.

The Eagles qualified five. Orange Lutheran had three.

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com