Story written by Mark Garcia

The San Clemente Triton wrestling team finished third out of 22 teams at the annual Watts Summer Games last month at Southwest College in Los Angeles.

“The team really did an exceptional job in the competition,” said Tritons coach Mark Calentino.

Individually, San Clemente had a dozen grapplers place, including senior Kyle Conroy, who was the 189-pound weight class champion and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player on the strength of his four pins.

“Kyle had a very strong tournament. He’s really becoming a dominating competitor,” said Calentino.

Placing third was senior Donald Stanley and junior Leo Flores. Earning fourth-place honors were juniors Zach Fishman and Hayden Yacobucci, and seniors Tyler Root, T.J. Chavez, and Aaron Lee. Juniors Calvin Wiss and Kyle Reese finished fifth, while sophomore Zach Fiene and senior Hector Garcia each took seventh.

Also representing the Tritons and winning matches in the tournament were Dakota Day, Wyatt Finnie, Justin Feldman, Spencer March, Darian Devoe, Adam Ferrier, Drake Montez and Shea Canada.

The Tritons will next be in action in the Orange County Summer Scrimmage League, as well as the Summer League Finals Tournament in late July.

The 34th Rotary Invitational Tournament is Saturday, at San Clemente High.

This year’s event will have over 30 teams from Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, and Nevada, and will feature a few of the county’s top grapplers. The field includes Irvine’s Kyle Chene (140) – ranked No. 1 in O.C. and No. 9 in the state – Aliso Niguel’s Brandon Huxford (145), who was last year’s Rotary champion and ranked No. 1 in the county, Irvine’s Thien Tran (103), currently No. 2 in O.C., and Capistrano Valley’s Mike Maierhofer (215), currently No. 2 in the county.

San Clemente’s chances of winning this year’s Rotary could be hampered depending on Friday’s results from the 44th Five Counties Invitational, taking place at Fountain Valley High. The Tritons will send their top grapplers to Five Counties, but if they don’t make it to the second day, Tritons coach Mark Calentino said he will place them in the Rotary tournament.
“I’m not much worried about winning the thing,” said Calentino, “I just want to get the kids some experience.”
Wrestling begins at 10 a.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Kids 10 and under get in free.