Mat Mission

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

The pain of losing in the finals at last year’s City Championships was so haunting that Palisades High wrestler James Van Wagenen vowed never to let it happen again.

Having captured the 106-pound title with three successive pins at City Finals his sophomore year, Van Wagenen moved up a weight class to 113 last winter and was uncharacteristically cautious throughout a 6-1 decision defeat to Adrian Escobar of Canoga Park.

This year he has stepped up his weight and his game and he is determined to be standing on the highest step when the finals are over Saturday night.

Displaying his usual cat-quick reflexes and non-stop aggression, the Dolphins senior scored three pins in the first period to take first place in the 128-pound division at the Region 2 Tournament last weekend and establish himself as the City favorite.

“I flipped the switch after I lost my chance at City last year,” Van Wagenen said after last Saturday’s Region 2 Tournament in Canoga Park. “I fell short against Adrian and it really stung. My biggest regret was cutting to 115 [pounds] last year. I’m 5-9 and this is the perfect weight.

One more week until I claim what’s mine—no one’s stopping me!”

Van Wagenen took out Joel Moreno of Chatsworth in 28 seconds in his first match and felled Matthew Valencia of MACES in 1:44 in the semifinals. In the finals, he used a signature move to pin Lincoln McClenahan from Granada Hills in 1:31. Just another day at the office for a young man on a mission.

“I don’t mess around in there… I’m not a decision guy,” added Van Wagenen, who improved to 33-5 this season. “I’m out to make a statement next week and then at state. I’ve won three tournaments and was seventh at Five Counties [in Fountain Valley]. Four of my five losses are by decision to guys ranked in the Top 15 in the state and the only time I got pinned was when I was injured.”

Van Wagenen works at perfecting his craft daily in the wrestling room with teammate Derek Anwar, who lost in the 152-pound final at regionals.

“We’ve been partners since we were 11 when he was 100 pounds and I was 68 pounds,” Van Wagenen joked after leading his team to a tie for fifth in the team standings with 138 points. “We’re like brothers fighting. We want to break each other. I’m the younger brother, Derek is the older.”

Van Wagenen has been accepted academically to USC but his dream is to walk on at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Although Van Wagenen proved to be the Dolphins’ only champion Saturday, several teammates placed high in their weight classes, giving coach Mike Lawlor reason for optimism heading into the City Championships on Friday and Saturday at Roybal Learning Center.

“Our league was tough this year,” he said. “We actually got second to San Pedro but it was no push over. There were a lot of good wrestlers. I like James’s chances obviously, but also Derek [Anwar] has a good chance in his division and so do Matthew [Hsu] and Soushyant [Saberi]. We’re better than we’ve ever been in the upper weights. In the past, that’s been ourt weakness but not this year.”

Soushyant pinned his first two opponents at 140 to set up a finals meeting with John Alvarez of San Fernando and although Soushyant survived the first two periods, avoiding several pins in the process, he ultimately took a three-count with 37 seconds left in the match.

At 167 pounds Matthew Hsu had a stellar day, finishing 4-1 to take third. He got pinned by Banning’s Steve Perez in his first bout but won all of his remaining matches by fall, including a pin of Granada Hills’ Arsen Ghapianyan in 3:52 in an action-packed third-place matchup.

Panyarat Litmen earned Palisades valuable points with a fourth-place showing at 192, winning his first match by fall, losing his second by decision, winning his third by a score of 7-3 and losing on points by the same score to Fremont’s Jesus Valdez in the third-place match.

Parker Field posted a 3-2 record to take fifth at 134 pounds, earning his place when a Chatsworth wrestler defaulted. He was pinned in 1:23 by Omar Menendez of Franklin after pinning his first two opponents in the first period.

Also taking fifth place was Nick Bertram in the 177-pound division.

His final match against Brian Perez of Carson saw both wrestlers gain the upper hand throughout a topsy turvy first period, but Bertam held his opponent down long enough for a three-count as the buzzer sounded.

Connor Kang was sixth at 146, losing to Angel Zelaya of Canoga Park by fall at 2:33 in the fifth-place match. Kang had pinned Zelaya in 3:02 in his first match of the day.

Michael Cahill was eighth in the 217-pound division and Ansar Sherkhanov did not place at 159.

San Fernando took first place in the team standings with 316.50 points, followed by Granada Hills and Banning.

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