Pair perform well at State

Brenton Visnoski of Edison and Alex Anunciation of Marina capped successful postseasons Saturday by medaling at the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield.

Visnoski earned a sixth-place standing at 145 pounds and Anunciation placed fifth at 130.

Visnoski (6-3 record) lost a close 3-0 match in the third round to eventual division champion Jake Elliott of Oakmont. The senior won by decision (6-0) over Bryant Heagney of Poway, technical (16-0) over Jonathon Gomez of Madera South, major (12-2) over Nate Vincent of Dublan and by decision over Jorge Barajas (3-1) of St. Francis, Brandon Sotomayor (6-4) of Centennial and Keaton Subjeck (3-2) of Oak Ridge.

He is the first Edison wrestler since 2007 to place at the State meet.

A four-year varsity letterman, Visnoski is a two-time Sunset League champion, a four-time CIF qualifier (one title, two runner-up finishes) and three-time CIF Masters qualifier. His record this year was 45-8. His four-year varsity record is 158-27.

Anunciation finished fifth at 130 in a division won by Nick Pena of Selma. Anunciation defeated Adam Pain of Rodriguez, 7-2, to capture fifth-place. The senior also scored wins over Juan Salas of Clovis, Oscar Lizarraga of Brawley and Matt Boles of Corning. He caps a 50-6 season that included a Sunset League title, Five Counties tournament title, CIF title (Inland Division) and CIF Master’s Meet runner-up finish.

Anunciation is a three-year varsity letterman, two-time Sunset League champion, a CIF divisional champion and three-time CIF Masters meet qualifier.

In addition to Visnoski and Anunciation, other local athletes to qualify and compete at the State meet were Erick Zumwalt (140), Cameron Bustos (152) and Greg Meline (160) of Edison and Dean O’Bourke (119) of Fountain Valley.

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Baseball

Ocean View won its first two games of the season — both in the Newport Elks Tournament — by defeating Irvine, 6-3, and Troy, 6-1.

Senior Alex Knowles got the win on the mound Friday by giving up two hits and striking out three without allowing an earned run against Irvine. Knowles was relieved by Forest Turner in the sixth. Turner was followed by Freddy Sepulveda and Colton Johnson finished the game in the seventh to pick up the save. Blake Walker had a double and triple and Blake Hitchcock added two singles and a run batted in to lead the Ocean View offense.

On Saturday, the Seahawks spotted Troy a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but stormed back to score a 6-1 victory. The pitching combination of Walker (four innings) and Johnson (three innings, seven strikeouts) surrendered just one hit. Walker supported his pitching with a two-for-four day on offense. Junior catcher Robert Fogarty provided a key hit when his two-out, two-strike bases-loaded doubles drove in three runs.

In other season openers Friday, Edison downed Pacifica, 3-1, Marina blanked El Dorado, 2-0, in Robert Marshall’s head coaching debut, and Fountain Valley fell, 6-0, to Vista Murrieta, in the Loara Tournament. Huntington Beach downed Santiago/Corona, 3-2, in the Newport Elks Tournament and Brethren Christian dropped an 11-7 nonleague game to Saddleback Valley Christian.

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Softball

The 2011 season began Friday and Saturday for the five local schools. On Friday, Marina routed Rosary, 7-0, and Ocean View downed Cypress, 7-3. On Saturday, Huntington Beach rolled past Brethren Christian, 11-1. Edison opened its season Tuesday at Yorba Linda and defeated the host Mustangs, 5-0.

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Basketball

Edison senior guard Dylan Garrity won the boys’ title last week at the inaugural CIF Southern Section and 94Fifty Sports Technologies skills competition. The event was held during the CIF Southern Section-Ford Basketball Championships, which ran March 1 through Saturday at Anaheim Arena.

94Fifty Sports Technologies scored ball-handling and shooting skills of players, who came from more than 80 leagues in the Southern Section. Garrity, representing the Sunset League, took first place in shooting, second in ball-handling and had a combined points total (158.07) to take the boys’ title. Senior guard Mitch Marmelstein of St. Margaret’s (Academy League) was second with 148.58 points.

Junior guard Kari Korver of Valley Christian/Cerritos won the girls’ skills competition title.

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Surfing

The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. State Championships, presented by Nike 6.0, begins Friday at the Huntington Beach Pier. The three-day Interscholastic State Championship event, which is expected to have 44 schools participate, starts with the college division championships. The high school division championships are Saturday and middle school championship on Sunday. College division preliminary rounds and all state championship finals also are Sunday. Individual titles also will be decided in the Men’s, Women’s and Longboard divisions.