NEWARK — Two Clear Lake High School wrestlers — one seeded, one not — have reached the semifinals of the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships after winning their first three matches on Friday at Newark Memorial High School.
No. 1 seed Justin Mills at 145 pounds and unseeded Michael Kroppmann at 160 pounds resume action today. The top four finishers in each of the 14 weight classes automatically advance to next weekend”s CIF State Championships in Bakersfield and Mills and Kroppmann are in a great position to keep their seasons going.
Mills (43-2) breezed through the first two rounds before beating Coleton Cramer of Sonoma 10-3 in the quarterfinals. Mills opened his day with a first-round pin of Yun Zhou of San Leandro and then came back with a 21-4 technical fall over Khai Tran of James Logan High School. He”ll face No. 4 seed Stephen De La Cruz of Livermore today in the semifinals. De La Cruz beat Josh Rosden of Montgomery in the quarterfinals 7-3.
The other semifinal at 145 pounds matches No. 3 seed Angelo Pree of Mount Diablo against No. 2 seed Mitch Arreguin of Healdsburg.
Kroppmann (36-6) beat another unseeded wrestler, Ben Garcia of Rancho Cotate, by 14-9 decision in the quarterfinals on Friday. In his first two matches, Kroppmann scored a first-round pin over Farid Siddiqui of San Leandro and then upset No. 4 seed Nick O”Brien of Clayton Valley 12-10 in the second round. Kroppmann”s opponent in today”s semifinals is No. 1 seed Jason Welch of Las Lomas High School, who won by pin and 24-7 and 23-7 technical falls in his three matches Friday. The other semifinal pits No. 3 seed Luke Mathieson of McKinleyville against No. 7 seed Tony Barnett of Foothill.
A third Clear Lake High wrestler, Tyler Hayes (38-5) at 112 pounds, won each of his first two matches before losing in the quarterfinals to No. 1 seed David Klingsheim of Liberty High School 13-2. In earlier action, Hayes pinned Ach McDiamio of Acalanes and then upset No. 8 seed Cody Howe of Windsor 7-5. While the loss to Klingsheim drops Hayes into the consolation bracket, he can still finish as high as third place depending on how he fares today.
In his first match today, Hayes will draw the winner of another consolation match between Son Tran of Newark Memorial and Josh Hartlieb of Petaluma.
A handful of other Lake County wrestlers, including brothers Robert and Roger McCutcheon of Upper Lake High School, are still alive in the consolation bracket and can still place as high as third.
103 pounds: Mike Diggs of Upper Lake is 2-1 after Friday”s action. He pinned Ashvin Ghandi of San Ramon in his first match before losing by pin to Nguyen Truong of Newark Memorial in a second-round match. In the consolation bracket, Diggs pinned Monty Keller of Marin Catholic. He”ll face Felipe Jojola of Justin-Siena in his first match today. Diggs is 38-4 on the season.
130 pounds: Erik Jameson of Clear Lake dropped an 8-7 decision go Jutin Gonzalez of Deer Valley in the opening round on Friday, but then won back-to-back consolation-round matches, both by pin, against Amrik Dhillon of California High School and Stephen Simon of Marin Catholic. Jameson will meet Jesse Teshara of Livermore in his first match today.
152 pounds: Matt Dakin of Middletown went 3-1 on Friday. He won an outbracket match against Steve McFadden of Las Lomas 19-6 before losing to Curtis Tuttle of Rancho Cotate 14-9 in the first round. Once in the consolation bracket, Dakin beat Adam Johnson of McKinleyville 8-5 and Jatthew Beutner of Justin-Siena 3-2. He”ll face Aaron Drake of California in his first match today.
160 pounds: Tyson Newton of Kelseyville and Robert McCutcheon of Upper Lake will meet in an elimination match when action gets under way today. On Friday, McCutcheon pinned Anthony Wolfsmith of James Logan in the opening round but then lost to Jessie Unpingco of Antioch in the second round, 15-10. In the consolation bracket, McCutcheon won by forfeit over Jim Carnation of Windsor. Newton was pinned by Lukie Mathieson of McKinleyville in his first match Friday, but he came back to pin Andy Dwyer of Liberty and Jesie Ruiz of Arcata in the consolation bracket.
189 pounds: Upper Lake”s Roger McCutcheon pinned Antonio Custodio of Arroyo in a first-round match but then dropped a 12-7 decision to Will Wambagans of California in the second round. In the consolation bracket, McCutcheon beat Chaz Ballew of Clear Lake 10-8. He”ll face Andrew Reggi of Albany when action opens today.
285 pounds: Trevor Franklin of Middletown pinned Ian Charles of Miramento in a first-round match before losing 3-1 to Derek Marrero of Newark Memorial in the second round. In the consolation bracket, Franklin pinned Jovanni Daigle of Mount Diablo. He”ll go up against Richard Hoppe of Piner when action resumes today.
