PREP WRESTLING ROUNDUP : El Modena Ends Canyon’s Long League Winning Streak

The streak ended and the hug-a-thon began. When the final buzzer sounded El Modena’s wrestlers picked up Coach Alan Clinton and paraded him around the Vanguards’ gym. Then, he accepted hug after handshake after hug.

El Modena’s 41-18 victory over Canyon Thursday ended the Comanches’ 12-year Century League dual meet winning streak, and put the Vanguards in position to win their first league title since 1978.

The Vanguards’ victory doesn’t rank as a major upset. After all, they were Orange County’s No. 2-ranked team and were unbeaten in 13 dual meets this season. Canyon, although no easy touch at No. 8 and 11-1-1, hasn’t been as strong as in recent seasons.

Still, 12 years of losing tends to weigh heavily on one’s mind.

“Relief,” Clinton said between backslaps. “Yeah, that’s a good word for it. The stress has been high this week, but it’s not over yet.”

El Modena still needs to defeat Santa Ana Valley to win the league championship outright. The teams meet Tuesday.

Clinton took nothing for granted Thursday. He’s been through too many of these Canyon-El Modena rumbles to do that.

So even when El Modena was far ahead and needed only to avoid being pinned in the final three matches, Clinton kept up his laser beam intensity on the sideline.

“When you’re wrestling Canyon anything can happen at any time,” he said.

This time around, good things kept happening for El Modena.

Expected to be strong in the middle weights, the Vanguards proved to be equally powerful in the heavier divisions, too.

El Modena’s Ryan Hughes started a streak of three consecutive pins by putting Kevin Kreucher on his back 1 minute 40 seconds in their 160-pound match. Brad Carlson then pinned Chris Lowder at 171 pounds and Chris Niez pinned Nathan Ramirez only 48 seconds into their 189-pound match.

Victories by El Modena’s Juan Alvarez at 130 and David Wells at 140 got the Vanguards rolling. Alvarez is the county’s second-ranked wrestler at his weight; Wells is top-ranked.

In the Garden Grove League:

Kennedy 59, La Quinta 15--At 160 pounds, Paul Durniok pinned his opponent in 1:29, while teammate Paul Soto pinned his opponent in 1:10 at 171 for host Kennedy (18-6, 5-1). La Quinta is 0-6 in league.

In the Sea View League:

Irvine 55, Saddleback 13--Fourth-ranked Irvine (16-0, 7-0) clinched the league dual meet championship with the victory. Jim Little recorded a pin at 140 pounds for the Vaqueros.

In the Sunset League:

Westminster 30, Edison 29--Mike Yim pinned Billy McCutchen in 22 seconds at 160 pounds to help Westminster (12-11, 6-1) get by Edison (6-2, 5-2).