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CIF Prep Wrestling: Poway High crowns 10 individual champions en route to 27th straight section title

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By Michael Bower

After having won every CIF San Diego Section Division I crown since its creation in 1994, the Poway High wrestling team was bumped to Division II this season due to a lower enrollment number.

But all that really meant was those schools in Division I finally have some hope of actually winning a banner, while those in Division II will need to get use to watching the Titans dominate.

The beginning of Poway’s take over of Division II happened Saturday night at Westview High School, as the Titans rolled to their 27

th

straight section team title – 32nd overall -- by crowning 10 individual champions.

The Titans, ranked No. 2 in the state behind Clovis, had representatives in 12 of the 14 championship matches and shattered the old Division II points record of 292.5 (Vallhalla 1998) with a total of 369.5 points. La Costa Canyon was a distant second with 269 points, while Rancho Bernardo finished third with 184 points.

“We actually had a little more of a challenge here in Division II because of La Costa Canyon,” said Poway 222-pounder Tim Chassen, who had four pins on the day to earn his first section title.

All 14 of Poway’s grapplers qualified for the Masters Tournament next week at Eastlake High School, where the top three finishers will earn a trip to the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield on March 1.

“We know that we are going to win Masters like we do every year,” Chassen said. “Obviously, we are going to go in there and try to qualify as many people to state as we can.”

Capturing section titles for the Titans were Tirso Lara (108 pounds), Janrad Fikingas (115), Taylor Dial (122), Gabe Faller (128), Ralphy Tovar (134), Sergio Enloe (140), Victor Lopez (147), Christophe Bailey (162), Sergio Cervantes (172) and Chassen (222).

Rancho Bernardo will have seven wrestlers move on to the Masters Tournament, including 287-pounder Arlen Kohrmann. The senior advanced to the title match before falling to Orange Glen’s Mario Williams 5-1 to finish in second place.

Hunter Stock (128) and Jacob Morre (108) both finished in third place to advance, while Rune Maxwell (162), Alexander Ferrer-Rui, Corbin Grenowich (197) and Jay Hartman (222) all finished in the top seven to qualify for next week.

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