SANTA ANA – The wrestling season that looked like it might not start ended well for Calvary Chapel.
The Eagles defeated Northview 37-21 on Saturday in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 Dual Meet Championships final at Calvary Chapel High.
Wrestling usually wraps up in late February with the CIF State tournament. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed and shortened the season, and kept the CIF Southern Section and State organizations from holding individual wrestling championships.
Calvary Chapel won its ninth CIF-SS dual meet title and finished the season 11-0. Northview concluded at 10-1.
Three Eagles won their matches by fall: junior Devyn Che (152 pounds) in the first period, freshman Makoa McCreadie (220 pounds) in the first period, and junior Allan Hendricks (113 pounds) in the second period.
Che went on the attack against Northview junior Jacob Leon, and his rapid pin in the day’s third match fired up his teammates.
“That set the momentum right where it was supposed to go,” said Calvary Chapel senior Luke Gayer, a winner at 170 pounds Saturday. “Then we started stacking (points up) up and stacking them up.”
Calvary Chapel coach Dane Valdez said Che is always capable of taking down an opponent as good as Leon.
“He’s one of the most dangerous and talented wrestlers we have,” Valdez said. “Combine that with his mentality and his drive, and he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with next year.”
Hendricks’ pin came on one of the more impressive moves of the day. He started the second period in the bottom position, quickly flipped Northview’s Jacob Tapia and 34 seconds into the period got his win by fall.
Other Calvary Chapel winners were sophomore Michael Folch (138 pounds), freshman Ramon Galmatico (160 pounds), junior Evan Gilbert (182 pounds), senior Tiger Ortiz (126 pounds) and junior Joaquin Arroyo (132 pounds).
Northview’s winners were sophomore Jacob Salcedo (145 pounds), senior Raymond Clark (195 pounds) and junior Adrian Limon (120 pounds).
Calvary Chapel forfeited two weight divisions, 106 pounds and heavyweight division, because of a lack of wrestlers in those categories.
“I don’t know if that’s ever happened before,” said Valdez. “Two forfeitures, but still win CIF.”
Gayer is among the Eagles who were CIF-SS individual champions last season but did not get the chance to defend their title this year. Still, he was satisfied with how his senior season ended.
“This is so nice because we work so hard,” Gayer said. “No one works as hard as we do.”
