Daily Pilot Wrestling Dream Team: Fountain Valley’s TJ McDonnell earns state medal, wants more
TJ McDonnell has a goal that few have believed they could reach and only one may achieve.
The Fountain Valley High School junior wrestler wants to become the first individual state champion in school history.
Like some of those who have dared to dream of those lofty heights before him, McDonnell knows why it has not happened before. It is difficult, but nothing else will do.
“My freshman year, I was the same way,” McDonnell said. “I wanted to be a state champ. I’ve been told from early on that if you don’t aim too high, then you hit too low, so the goal is always above and beyond.”
McDonnell, who went 22-2 on the mat this season, came close to making it happen, ascending the podium as the third-place finisher at 182 pounds in the CIF State individual wrestling championships. He is also the Daily Pilot Dream Team Wrestler of the Year.
It was a big-time comeback for McDonnell, who said a wrestling injury that saw him tear the posterior lateral corner in his left knee was responsible for his late start to the season. McDonnell made his season debut at Fountain Valley’s host event, the Five Counties Tournament, where he was the runner-up to Clovis Buchanan’s Joseph Martin. He would not be defeated again until the state meet, at which Martin was the individual champion of the 182-pound division.
Along the way, McDonnell picked up his second Sunset Conference and CIF Southern Section individual wrestling championships titles. He was also crowned champion of his bracket at the CIF Masters Meet to earn his second trip to the state meet.
A decade into his life as a wrestler, McDonnell has never been more in love with the sport, but it wasn’t always that way. He started wrestling at the age of 6, and two years into it, he needed convincing to continue.
“My friends were playing other sports,” McDonnell said. “They were doing baseball and football, and that stuff was fun. Coming to wrestling practice wasn’t fun. It’s hard. So that was the biggest problem when you’re young. It’s not as much of a childhood as much as the other sports will give you. You got to get serious quick and make those sacrifices soon to put that work in.”
The payoff from putting in the work was rewarding.
“Once you feel that feeling for the first time of all that work being worth it, it’s like a high that you just end up chasing forever,” McDonnell said. “It’s the best thing in the world, for sure. That’s what I fell in love with.”
Fountain Valley had seven Masters qualifiers — including McDonnell’s younger brother Khale — and a total of six state qualifiers this season. Sean Solis, Kade Ayres, Zach Parker, Hercules Windrath and Ryland Whitworth also advanced to the state meet, where Fountain Valley placed 12th as a team.
“I think this year remains one of the best teams,” Fountain Valley coach Brad Woodbury said. “We ended up 12th. I know we fell short at the CIF individuals taking second [to Covina Northview], but these kids wrestled their [butt] off. We beat those teams at Masters and the state.
“We’re the highest-placing team [in our division] in the state. Having six guys go was great. They all wrestled outstanding. They just battled to the end, so this has got to be one of the top teams that we’ve had.”
COACH OF THE YEAR
Chris Rasmussen
Marina
Rasmussen and the Vikings enjoyed great success for the Marina boys’ and girls’ wrestling programs. The girls made a lot of noise late, edging out Walnut 226.5-226 in the CIF Central Division individual wrestling championships. Marina’s girls’ team followed up with title-winning performances in the Masters Meet (155-122 over San Dimas) and the state championships (92.5-68 over Gilroy). “We want to go out and beat people,” Rasmussen said of his team’s dominance. “We want to go out and pin people. … I believe in state, Masters and CIF, we led [those] tournaments in pins, and that was a big point of emphasis that we had was pinning people. We wanted pins. We didn’t want to draw out matches if we didn’t have to, and those bonus points put us over the top.” On the boys’ side, Marina had four Masters qualifiers in Adrian Jimenez, Haden Hernandez, Ryan Escamilla and Ethan Esparza, the first three of which advanced to state.
FIRST TEAM
Kaelani Schufeldt
101 | Marina | Sr.
The stiffest challenge that the Marina girls’ wrestling team faced came in the Central Division finals at La Quinta, where the Vikings narrowly topped Walnut 226.5-226. Schufeldt was one of five weight-class champions in the tournament for the Vikings, joined by Kacey Schafer (106), Jordyn Chrisco (116), Presley Anderson (121) and Alexandra Lopez (143). Schufeldt, who was a second-place finisher in the state meet, went 45-5 on the season. She also earned her second Sunset Conference individual crown.
Haden Hernandez
120 | Marina | Jr.
Marina’s boys’ wrestling team boasted strength at both ends of the spectrum, with two lower-weight state qualifiers in Adrian Jimenez (106) and Hernandez and one in the upper weights in Ryan Escamilla (220). Hernandez, a transfer from Huntington Beach, was a first-time Sunset Conference champion. He went 50-9, with no win bigger than a sudden-death overtime decision over Santa Ynez’s Thomas Johnson in the ninth-place match at the Masters Meet to advance to state.
Sean Solis
132 | Fountain Valley | Sr.
Fountain Valley has thrived in the Sunset Conference for a long time with wrestlers experiencing immediate success when they step on the scene. Solis, who went 30-7 with 19 pins, makes his third appearance as a Dream Team first-team selection after securing his third individual CIF title. In his four years with the program, Solis helped the Barons win back-to-back CIF individual wrestling championships in 2019 and 2020, as well as a CIF Division 3 dual meet championship in 2021. Solis has committed to North Dakota State.
Kade Ayres
138 | Fountain Valley | Sr.
Internal competition breeds team success. Ayres, who often had to wrestle above his weight in the postseason meets during his career with the Barons because of wrestle-offs, provided that for the program. A Sunset Conference champion, Ayres was the runner-up in his weight class in the Central Division finals and fifth in the Masters Meet to punch his ticket to state. His top-five finish at the state-qualifying meet bettered the best finish there by his brother Karson, who was a former Daily Pilot Wrestler of the Year in 2017. Ayres went 17-9 with seven pins.
Alexandra Lopez
143 | Marina | Sr.
Lopez dominated the competition with a 48-3 record this season. The Huntington Beach transfer earned her second section title, and she also took home second-place medals in the Masters and state meets. Her résumé also included tournament titles at Capistrano Valley, Mater Dei, Bonita, Ayala and the Dick Morris Memorial at CdM. The two-time Sunset Conference champion was named the upper-weight MVP of the Central Division finals, at which teammate Presley Anderson earned lower-weight MVP honors.
Zach Parker
145 | Fountain Valley | Sr.
The Five Counties Tournament brings in some top-tier talent, so when Parker won a tournament title in front of the home faithful at Fountain Valley, it signaled good things were ahead. Parker, who posted a 38-5 record with a team-best 22 pins, went on to win the Sunset Conference and CIF Central Division individual titles. He also finished third in the Masters Meet and sixth in the state meet. The senior was one of three state medalists for the Barons, joining TJ McDonnell and Ryland Whitworth.
Hercules Windrath
152 | Fountain Valley | So.
Fountain Valley has three state qualifiers walking out the door, but the cupboard is far from empty for the Barons. Windrath is one of three Fountain Valley wrestlers who made it to state this season who should return next season, and freshman Khale McDonnell was a Masters Meet qualifier. Windrath had a flair for the dramatic, winning in overtime to claim his first CIF individual title and taking the must-have ninth-place match at Masters to advance to state. He went 28-9 and was ranked 20th in the state for his weight class.
Eugenio Franco
195 | Corona del Mar | So.
It helps to have experience in your corner. Franco, whose brother Emilio wrestled for and helped lead CdM to a CIF Division 6 dual meet title over Montebello in 2020, took his turn in spearheading the Sea Kings to accomplish that same feat against Western this season. Franco went 45-11 in his matches. He might have added more titles to his ledger in the individual postseason meets had it not been for another local wrester in Fountain Valley’s Ryland Whitworth, who defeated him in a 1-0 decision in the CIF Central Division final.
Ryland Whitworth
195 | Fountain Valley | So.
Fountain Valley had a bruising upper-weight duo with TJ McDonnell and Whitworth. The sophomore standout finished the season ranked sixth in the state for 195-pounders after winning a Sunset Conference title and a CIF individual championship, earning both against a quality opponent in CdM’s Eugenio Franco. Those two could see a lot of each other, as both are sophomores. Whitworth finished as the runner-up in the Masters Meet, and he was sixth at state. He went 28-7 overall with 15 victories by fall.
SECOND TEAM
Name, School, Year, Weight
Adrian Jimenez, Marina, Jr., 106
Kacey Schafer, Marina, Sr., 106
Kai Villasenor, Newport Harbor, Sr., 113
Jordyn Chrisco, Marina, Jr., 116
Presley Anderson, Marina, Jr., 121
Zach Maxwell, Estancia, Sr., 138
Luke Villaluz, Corona del Mar, Sr., 138
Khale McDonnell, Fountain Valley, Fr., 170
Jeremy Kanter, Laguna Beach, Jr., 182
Ryan Escamilla, Marina, Sr., 220
Ethan Esparza, Marina, Sr., 285
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