Four earn CIF crowns

Four athletes from the Sunset League won individual titles Saturday at the CIF Southern Section Individuals (Inland Division) Wrestling Championships at Roosevelt High in Corona.

They will be joined by several other local athletes this weekend at the two-day CIF Masters Tournament in Temecula beginning Friday.

The four individual champions were Dean O’Bourke (119-pounds) of Fountain Valley, Alex Anunciation (130) and Colin Navickas (140) of Marina, and Brenton Visnoski (145) of Edison.

O’Bourke, a junior, won the 119-pound division by defeating Centennial/Corona sophomore Giovanni Castillo in the final. Anunciation, a senior, won the 130 division by defeating Centennial/Corona junior Andrew Schulte.

Just a sophomore, Navickas’ road to the 140 division crown included victories over Edison senior Erick Zumwalt and senior Richard Valdez of Corona. Visnoski won by technical call (18-3) over junior Jose Sandoval of Paramount.

Visnoski improved his season record to 34-3 (13 falls, 10 technical, six major, five decision). He is a four-time CIF qualifier. In three previous CIF appearances, he has earned one CIF individual title and two runner-up finishes. His four-year varsity record to date is 146-22.

Edison finished second in the Inland Division team standings behind champion Centennial/Corona. Marina was ninth, Fountain Valley 11th and Huntington Beach 40th. Edison also qualified six wrestlers for this weekend’s CIF Masters Meet, the most qualifiers from a single school in the division.

In addition to Visnoski, moving on to Masters from Edison is Cameron Bustos (152, second place), Zumwalt (140, third place), Greg Meline (160, third place), Charles Burks (215, third place) and Josh Peth (171, fifth place).

Junior Tyler Smith (215) of Marina — who defeated Burks in the semifinals but lost in the division final to Paramount senior Antonio Lopez— also qualified for the Masters Meet. Also advancing to this weekend’s tournament is senior Vincent Tran (103, fourth place) and sophomore Steele Escobido (135, fourth place) both of Fountain Valley.

The CIF Masters Meet concludes Saturday.

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Girls’ Water Polo

Edison’s big run through the CIF playoffs was halted Friday by top-ranked Dos Pueblos, which made the trek from Goleta to Huntington Beach and returned home with a 12-8 victory at the Ocean View High pool.

The triumph allowed Dos Pueblos, the nation’s top-ranked girls’ prep water polo team, to extend its winning streak to 65 games.

Not the driving rain, or blustery winds, could stop mighty Dos Pueblos. Despite leading the entire way, Dos Pueblos Coach Chris Parrish said his team was a little jittery at the start of the game, which began in a heavy downpour. His squad didn’t find things easy early against Edison.

“To tell you the truth, we were a little nervous coming into this game,” he said. “We were playing against the hottest team in the division. Edison was playing really good water polo and we were a bit concerned. I think that showed early. We weren’t getting the plays we wanted but started to execute in the second quarter. That allowed us to take control of the game.”

Eighth-ranked Edison was playing its third game in four days. The Chargers, who finished third behind second-ranked Los Alamitos and third-ranked Newport Harbor in the Sunset League, had to beat Northwood in a wild-card game Feb, 15 to earn a first-round game. They did just that, winning, 15-6, then went to Mira Costa on Feb. 16 and scored a 13-6 win over the Mustangs.

The Chargers were confident coming into Friday’s quarterfinal game.

“We felt we could play with them, and we did,” Edison Coach Diggy Riley said. “We had one day to prepare for them, literally, and that’s a tough thing to do when you play a talented team like Dos Pueblos. But coming into this, we weren’t really afraid of them.

“I thought we did a great job in the second half where we outscored them. We were right there in the first quarter and early in the second quarter, but Dos Pueblos presses so well in the lanes and that leads to turnovers. We made some mistakes in the second quarter and they, unfortunately, cost us.”

Haley Kunert and Alys Williams scored three goals each, Melissa Balding scored once and Sydni Estrella recorded 10 stops for Edison, which concluded its season at 17-12.

“It’s been a great ride,” Riley said. “I was really pleased with our girls and what they accomplished. We lose Haley (Kunert) but everybody else is back next year. We had a great year and we’re looking forward to what the future holds.”