Southern Section Masters Wrestling : Jackson Easily Advances to State Meet

Lawrence Jackson of Santa Monica High School led a field of 65 wrestlers who advanced to the State tournament by placing in the top five in their weight classes at the Southern Section Masters meet Saturday at Westminster High School.

Jackson was hardly challenged in winning the 136-pound weight class, easily beating four straight opponents, including a 13-3 win in the final over Victor Saucedo of Santa Maria Righetti.

Two of Jackson’s other three matches were pins, and his opening-round victory was a 16-1 defeat of DeWayne DeNolf of Placentia Valencia. Jackson was the 136-pound 3-A division champion last week and was expected to dominate his weight class Saturday.

No team scoring was kept at the Masters meet, but six schools--Victor Valley, Calexico, Mark Keppel, Anaheim Loara, Atascadero, and Placentia El Dorado--each had three wrestlers qualify for the State tournament next Friday and Saturday at Independence High in San Jose.

Victor Valley was the only school to have two individual champions as Charlie Irick and Tom Henderson won their respective matches in the finals.

Irick pinned Dean Isa of Keppel in the 102-pound division, and Henderson defeated Dennis Furnish of San Clemente, 12-5, at 158 pounds.

The greatest margin of victory in the final came at heavyweight where David Jones of Montclair outpointed Randy Gonzales of Garden Grove Rancho Alamitos, 16-4.

The best match in the final was at 116 pounds where Ed Regan of Fullerton Sunny Hills beat Greg Jackson of Santa Monica in overtime, 6-2.

Regan was losing, 2-1, with 15 seconds left, and managed a takedown (two points) and a near fall (three points) in the time remaining to pull out the victory.

At 195 pounds, undefeated (43-0) Steve Lawson of El Dorado proved that he was only human, winning a match by points instead of a fall. Before his 5-0 victory over Ramon Diaz of West Covina Bishop Amat in the final, all of Lawson’s victories this season had been by a fall or technical fall (15-point or more victory).

Lawson is the defending State champion at 178 pounds but is one of the favorites for this season’s State title at 195 pounds.