Southern Section Masters Wrestling Meet : El Dorado’s Tomazic Proves Mission Possible

Todd Tomazic, El Dorado High School wrestler, stuffed his final Southern Section Masters Meet bout card in the scorer’s box at Fountain Valley High Saturday and boldly proclaimed: “The revenge is done.”

You knew this was no ordinary meet for the Golden Hawk senior, who is the defending state champion at 168 pounds. It was a mission.

He set out to avenge his only two losses of the season--to Atascadero’s Darin Brebes in the California Invitational Tournament and to Workman’s Mike Ramos in the semifinals of last week’s Southern Section 4-A meet.

And in defeating both for the Masters title Saturday, Tomazic showed that it will be difficult to take his state title away next weekend in Fresno’s Selland Arena.

Tomazic prepared for his semifinal match against Brebes by slapping himself in the face and working himself into a frenzy. After thoroughly dominating Brebes, 11-1, he slammed several high-fives into the hands of Golden Hawk coaches. It was more of the same after Tomazic beat Ramos, 7-5, for the title.

“I knew I had to get a little angry today,” Tomazic said. “People think, ‘Oh, he lost a few, he’s not going to repeat.’ I just want to let them know that I’m here.”

Tomazic wasn’t the only wrestler to make a statement Saturday. Valencia’s Sam Lopez (108 pounds) and Fred Jenkins (178) each won Masters titles, proving that perennial power El Dorado is not the only excellent wrestling program in Placentia.

“We feel overshadowed sometimes,” Jenkins said. “But we showed that Valencia has a wrestling program too.”

Lopez beat Schurr’s Sheldon Kim, 8-6, and Jenkins beat Dos Pueblos’ Carson Wollert, 15-8, in the final. Other Orange County champions included: Fountain Valley 141-pounder Tom Odar, who pinned Sierra Vista’s Ralph Diaz at 2:43; Loara 157-pounder Brian Malavar, who defeated Capistrano Valley’s David Hynan, 9-5, and Savanna heavyweight Tom Osendorf, who beat Pacifica’s Steve Palczewski, 11-2.

Canyon, which won the 4-A championship last week, failed to produce a Masters champion but qualified four wrestlers for the state meet. Victor Valley also qualified four wrestlers, including champions Charlie Irick (115), Ray Leonard (122) and Dan Henderson (148), for the state meet.

Capistrano Valley qualified three wrestlers, and Loara, El Dorado, Edison and Fountain Valley had two qualifiers.