George stays perfect

COSTA MESA — In all white, Newport Harbor High’s Josh George looked like a polar bear cub on the attack.

The prey was whoever dared to step on his turf, a wrestling mat, where the only safe zone was out of the circle.

Opponents tried to escape like a seal in the Arctic, but George put his paws on them, bringing them back in to finish them off. The final one took longer than the previous three.

Once George took down Irvine’s Bryan Sadiua in the third period, the senior was on his way to being the last 140-pounder standing tall.

George ended an impressive two days at the 28th annual Estancia New Year’s Classic by recording a 16-0 technical fall in the championship Saturday, improving his record to 25-0.

As fast as the referee lifted George’s arm to signal the winner, George fled the gym. No one knew where George went, except for Newport Harbor Coach Dominic Bulone.

George left for the locker room to change. Bulone wanted back the white singlet he allowed George to wear in the final.

“When they get to the finals, I give them a white singlet to wear,” Bulone said. “Every time he’s worn it, he’s won. If he gets to the finals again, I’ll give it back to him.”

George respects that, knowing it won’t be the last time he slips into the white singlet. George returned to the gym, with a folded singlet in hand. He handed it to Bulone, who beamed because George had just received an invitation to the prestigious Five Counties Invitational at Fountain Valley on Jan. 18-19.

It’s the first for a Newport Harbor wrestler in Bulone’s nine years.

Five Counties boasts the best in the state, full of individual state champs, state placers and some out-of-state nationally-ranked wrestlers and teams. The same way George approached the event at Estancia, where he went 4-0 and recorded two pins and two tech falls to win his third tournament, he plans to do the same at the state-caliber event.

“I have to earn my respect,” said George, the No. 9-ranked 140-pounder in the CIF Southern Section with 13 pins and nine tech falls. “I’m going to go out there and win it, get a national spot.”

George is sure moving up, something Bulone can’t wait to see where it takes him. Last year, heavyweight Brian Beaudette reached state, the first wrestler for Bulone to do so. With George improving on his third-place finish from a year ago, he’s following in Beaudette’s footsteps by being the second straight Harbor senior to earn an individual title at Estancia.

Newport Harbor took 14th place in the 25-school event, which Irvine claimed for the second straight year.

This time Irvine, with 10 wrestlers placing, won by a bigger margin, finishing ahead of Calvary Chapel, 244.5-191. Rounding the top five were Murrieta Valley (170.5), Fountain Valley (170) and Trabuco Hills (124).

Even though the Newport-Mesa-area schools didn’t crack the top 10, with Corona del Mar at 15th, Costa Mesa 22nd and Estancia 26th, 10 district wrestlers placed in the top eight.

The Sea Kings boasted the most with four, 215-pounder Max Prescott (fourth), 160-pounder Andrew Halladay (sixth), 171-pounder Travis Prickett (sixth) and 189-pounder Scott Lineback (sixth).

But CdM Coach Gary Almquist might have lost Lineback for the season.

Lineback had to be helped off the mat in his match with Costa Mesa’s Cody De La Mater determining the wrestler advancing to the third-place match. De La Mater won by default after Lineback seriously hurt an ankle in the opening period.

“Like in basketball, when you come down on someone’s ankle, nothing’s wrong, just one of those freak things in wrestling,” Almquist said. “If it’s a dislocation, we might be OK.”

The injury was a setback on a day Almquist was glad he saw Sea Kings place. Unlike last year, when Almquist said he ordered the Sea Kings back to CdM for practice after a disappointing tournament.

“I said, ‘If we don’t bring home the hardware, we’re going to go and practice,’” Almquist said. “Well, a couple of them still might have to.”

The Sailors had two other wrestlers place in heavyweight Cameron Rausch (seventh) and 171-pounder Ryan Dickey (eighth). The Mustangs saw De La Mater (fourth) and 215-pounder Tamas Gyorfi (sixth), and the Eagles’ 103-pounder Pedro Lopez (third).

A year ago at the same event, Lopez, in street clothes, flipped burgers outside for two days. Not able to wrestle then because of what he called “massive” ringworm,” Lopez returned and turned it on when it mattered most.

The senior beat Norwalk’s Steven Joyce, 11-4, to take third place. Lopez made sure Estancia Coach Brian Burgess continued his five-year streak of having at least one wrestler place. Burgess, as Costa Mesa Coach Jesse Franco, only has a handful of varsity wrestlers. Burgess looked proud of Lopez and with good reason.

“It was all over my body. Coach was like, ‘No, you’re not going to get away with it,’ ” said Lopez of the ringworm last year. “What motivated me to do [well] was that Efren [Alvarez] got fourth place [last year as a senior], and I can’t be a fourth-place winner. I got to do a little bit better, show that the team is improving.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].