The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
It was a busy Saturday for Moore League wrestling programs as three teams competed in their respective CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoff duals.
In Anaheim, Long Beach Poly and Millikan competed at Western High – while the Lakewood girls’ team was on their home mat as the Lancers hosted the division 3 tournament.
All three teams advanced to the quarterfinals, but the Jackrabbits were the lone team to win that match and advance to the semifinals. Looking to punch their ticket to the championship match, the Jackrabbits lost a heartbreaker as they fell to El Dorado 37-34 in a thriller that came down to Poly being unable to field a wrestler in the final match resulting in the Hawks being awarded enough points to win.
“I saw a lot of heart,” Long Beach Poly coach Ken Lee said of his team’s performance. “I had a lot of JV kids step it up today. We suffered a lot of injuries this week so we asked some of the younger guys to step it up and see what we could do, while we were missing some of our starters and they were able to pull a lot of their own weight.”
It was a tough loss for the Jackrabbits after winning five of the first six semifinal matches to take a 24-6 lead. After dropping the opening bout – Knox Espinoza, Colin Ornelas, Lincoln Chung, Jayden Al Ekong and Rocky Lo picked up wins.
The Hawks picked up another victory in the next match and senior Alek Carrera answered right back winning his match to give the Jackrabbits a 28-12 lead. El Dorado responded with their own pin to cut Poly’s lead to 28-18. Alberto Olague responded with his own pin to give the Jackrabbits a 34-18 lead with four matches remaining.
That’s when El Dorado won the next three matches to cut Poly’s lead to 34-31 and after Poly was unable to field the final match – the Hawks were awarded six points and completed their comeback.
The Jackrabbits had a historic season as a team on the boys’ side including winning their first Moore League title since 1989.
Millikan
After a dominating opening-round victory against Rim of the World, the Rams found themselves in a battle against Santa Fe in the quarterfinals.
After dropping the first match, the Rams were rewarded one point due to a Chiefs’ misconduct penaltu that made it so Millikan was down 2-0 heading into the second match. Santa Fe responded with a pin to take a 8-0 lead and that’s when Chase Antrobius pinned his opponent to cut the deficit to 8-6.
The Rams won the next match and freshman Jimmy Alvarez Jr. picked up five big points thanks to a tech fall that gave Millikan a 15-8 lead. The Chiefs responded winning the next three matches and took a 20-15 lead. Junior Chris Anguiano tied the match in the next bout via tech fall and tied the match at 20-20.
The Chiefs didn’t let up as they earned two straight pins to take a 32-20 lead. Daniel Escobedo kept the Rams in striking distance to cut the deficit to 32-26, however Santa Fe won the next two matches to advance to the finals.
It was tough afternoon for Millikan after entering the day without a full-strength lineup and the Rams were dealt another blow in the opening round when they had an injury that forced them to make more adjustments.
With the losses, the boys’ wrestling teams will now gear up for the Moore League boys wrestling finals on Saturday morning at Cabrillo.
Girls Wrestling
Lakewood
As the lone Moore League representative the Lancers picked up a huge opening round win on Saturday as they defeated JW North in a bout that had to go to tiebreakers after the teams finished their match in a 42-42 tie.
Lakewood ended up advancing due to “Criteria E” which awards the win to the team that had the least amount of forfeits. The Lancers had four and JW North had seven which allowed Lakewood to win the match and advance.
In the next round, the Lancers lost to Elsinore 69-12 as their team postseason came to an end.
“We did match up well with Elsinore,” Lakewood coach Randy Gonzalez said.
Lakewood will now turn its attention to CIF individuals. Ashley Wafer will be aiming to repeat as champion and make a run to Nationals.
