Area to send six to state

Edison, Marina and Fountain Valley will be represented this weekend at the CIF State Wrestling Championships.

Edison qualified four athletes and Marina and Fountain Valley each placed one to the State meet, which begins Friday and concludes Saturday at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. The six advanced to the State tournament by placing at the Southern Section Masters Meet last Friday and Saturday at Temecula Valley High.

Advancing to State from Edison is junior Greg Meline, who placed second at 160 pounds, senior Cameron Bustos (sixth place, 152), senior Brenton Visnoski (fourth place, 145) and senior Erick Zumwalt (fifth place, 140). Moving on from Marina is senior Alex Anunciation, who was second at 130, and junior Dean O’Bourke of Fountain Valley, who finished sixth at 119.

A three-year varsity letterman and two-time team captain, Anunciation is a two-time Sunset League champion and CIF divisional champion in his weight class. He has qualified for the Southern Section Masters Meet three times.

Visnoski takes a 39-5 record into the State Championships.

Edison finished eighth, Marina was 27th and Fountain Valley 61st in the team standings. Calvary Chapel/Santa Ana won the team title.

Anunciation, Visnoski, O’Bourke and Navickas won CIF SS Individuals (Inland Division) titles in their respective weight class the previous weekend.

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Girls’ Basketball

Both Huntington Beach and Brethren Christian had their seasons end in the past week.

Third-ranked Huntington bowed out of contention for the Division 2AA title Feb. 24 after falling, 69-57, in the quarterfinals to visiting Canyon of Canyon Country, the No. 5 team in the division. Maya Kennedy had 24 points and Kelsey Minato scored 14 for the Oilers, who finished runner-up to Edison in the Sunset League race.

Canyon/Canyon Country was eliminated Saturday in the semifinals by second-ranked Buena.

“I had a great time this season seeing a great group of girls working together to become a very tough team,” Huntington Coach Russ McClurg said. “They have made their families, school and coaches very proud. I want to thank the girls for continuing a winning tradition.”

Fifth-ranked Brethren Christian’s bid for a Division 5A crown was stopped Saturday by visiting Holy Martyrs of Encino, as the division’s fourth-ranked team hit two critical three-point shots in the fourth quarter to emerge with a 36-32 quarterfinal win at Liberty Christian High in Huntington Beach.

Sophomore Sara Hodges scored 12 points and senior Kirsten Sakata had seven points for the Warriors, who completed a 20-8 season and had a second-place finish in the Academy League.

The 2010-11 Warriors advanced to the quarterfinals, the farthest the program has advanced in eight years, Coach Jeff Wallace said. The 20 wins also is the most in that eight-year period.

“We had a gameplan in place against them and executed it as we had practiced, by and large,” Wallace said. “As it often [does] in the later rounds of CIF play, it often times comes down to execution and finishing. We had 16 layup opportunities during the course of the game that we did not finish. Any partial percentage of those go down and we move onto play in the semis.

“Still, even with the loss, we close the books on a very successful overall season. Advancing to the quarterfinals is the farthest that the girls program had gone in CIF play in the last eight years. We earned a tournament championship, a second-place finish and a consolation championship in our three tournament entries this year.”