Every year, the best high school wrestlers in the state converge at Fountain Valley High School for the annual Five-Counties Invitational. The two-day battle royale returns this weekend, and you can expect to witness some of the best male bonding outside of Brokeback Mountain. More than 70 teams from Orange, Imperial, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties will compete, including perennial powerhouses Poway, Temecula Valley and Bakersfield, as well as the big boys of the OC wrestling scene: Calvary Chapel, Santa Ana, Edison and host Fountain Valley. Hopefully, the local grapplers will do better than last year, when only Calvary Chapel and Edison placed in the final top 15 team scores and Foothill's Brian Moreno—a three-time state champion and TheOrange County Register's 2005 Boy Athlete of the Year—was the sole county champion, at the 112-pound weight class. If the polls are right, it should be a better showing this time, with five county teams ranked in the CIF Southern Section's Top 10 Division I wrestling teams, and Santa Ana and Calvary Chapel third and fifth in the Division II list, respectively. With tickets no more than $7 and the quality of competitions sure to be ferocious, the Five-Counties Invitational will be the best sports drama happening in Orange County until the Angels and Anaheim face off in court.
FIVE-COUNTIES INVITATIONAL HAPPENS AT FOUNTAIN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL, 17816 BUSHARD ST., FOUNTAIN VALLEY, (714) 962-3301. FRI., 11 A.M.-9 P.M.; SAT., 9 A.M.-7 P.M. $5-$7; STUDENTS, $3-$4; KIDS, $1.
