High School Wrestling: California clinches Del Rio League title

California High School wrestlers celebrate Tuesday’s 59-9 win over La Serna that gave the Condors a Del Rio League title. (Christopher Burt / Correspondent)

By Eric Terrazas, SGVN
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WHITTIER – California High School captured the Del Rio League wrestling title in dominating fashion by defeating La Serna 59-9 at home on Tuesday.

The Condors capped off a 5-0 league record by winning 12 of the dual meet’s 14 bouts. Five of those victories came by fall, which were delivered by Chris Garcia, Elias Mercado, Adrian Chavez, Isaiah Escobedo and Mario Ponce.

California coach Doug Loo said the Condors’ achievement was a result of an overall team effort.

“I’m proud of the kids and the coaches,” Loo said. “They worked hard and put in a lot of time and effort.

“A lot of alumni came back to help us.”

Tuesday’s triumph marked the Condors’ first league crown since the program was restarted 12 years ago.

“It was a great night,” Loo said. “We had a lot of tough matches that could have gone either way. We can’t celebrate too long because we have league finals coming up Saturday.”

La Serna finished with a 3-2 league mark.

Nate Espinoza, Escobedo and Mercado serve as the Condors’ team captains.

“It feels great,” Espinoza said of winning the league crown. “We worked really hard for this.

“It feels great winning the league title against La Serna, our crosstown rival.”

Said Escobedo: “It just shows that a lot of our hard work paid off. We put in a lot of hard work.”

“It feels good to finally have that banner,” Mercado said.

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