By John Wareham, Special to the Daily News
Posted: January 26, 2013, Daily News, Los Angeles

The host Chaminade wrestling team made a statement at the Best in the Valley tournament Saturday and it was punctuated with three exclamation points.

Three of the four Eagles wrestlers who reached the finals won titles — as did a former teammate who transferred to El Camino Real earlier this year — which led the local group of competitors at the 32-team tournament.

Mason Nystrom (145 pounds), Alex Fuentes (152) and Arashdeep Gill (171) all won for Chaminade and Roman Ramirez (132) got to the finals and took second. They all improved upon their places from last year’s tournament, when Nystrom finished second, Fuentes placed fifth, Ramirez was 10th and Gill didn’t compete due to injury.

“We’re just all proud of what we did,” Fuentes said. “If I can speak for the team: ultimately we’re just going to wrestle hard every time.”

The three winners were victorious in almost consecutive order. Two of them beat the same opposing team.

Nystrom took an early 2-1 lead against Ventura’s Kamwren Aiken, who kept the 145-pound final close until Nystrom scored five points late in the last period and won 13-6.

Fuentes followed against Ventura’s Jack Sartee and held a 6-1 lead until his opponent put a scare into him with three late points. Fuentes then held the slim two-point lead for the last 15 seconds, despite a clock malfunction delaying the start for at least five extra seconds. Read More