LAKEPORT — Maybe Mitch Arreguin of Healdsburg and Justin Mills of Clear Lake will meet again sometime this weekend during the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield.
Maybe, but not likely.
Arreguin pinned Mills in their 145-pound championship match last weekend at the North Coast Section Championships in Newark in a battle of the tournament”s top two seeds — the No. 1 Mills against the No. 2 Arreguin, who had lost to Mills earlier in the season.
If the two are going to meet for a third time, it will either be in the championship match ? they”re on opposite sides of the bracket at 145 pounds ? or somewhere in the consolation bracket.
Mills, one of two Clear Lake wrestlers involved in this weekend”s state competition, will face Mitch Moralez of Tulare Union High School, in his first match on Friday at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. Moralez placed fourth in the Central Section Championships last weekend. Both are seniors.
If Mills wins, he could face one of three wrestlers in the second round. The winner of a 145-pound out-bracket match between Cesar Padilla and Hawkin Ruis will face Danny Gonzales in another first-round match. The survivor faces the Mills/Moralez winner in the second round.
Padilla, a sophomore, is the fifth-place finisher at the San Joaquin Section finals, while Ruis, a senior, placed second in the San Diego Section. Gonzalez, who awaits the Padilla-Ruis winner, is a senior and the fourth-place finisher at the Central Coast Section finals.
Clear Lake”s other state qualifier, Michael Kroppmann at 160 pounds, finished fourth at the NCS finals last weekend. He”ll meet the winner of an out-bracket match between Damien Noriega, the Los Angeles Section champion, and Joseph Ames, the Central Section seventh-place finisher, in the first round.
Awaiting the Kroppmann-Noriega/Ames winner in the second round will be the winner of a first-round match between Evan Coles, the Southern Section third-place finisher, and Ian Daube, the San Diego Section runner-up.
Notes: Lower Lake”s Zeb Beatty, a 215-pounder, finished second in the NCS Championships in 1999 and second at the CIF State Championships the following week. Last year, Middletown”s Steve Franklin placed fourth in the state finals, also at 215 pounds.
Medals go to the top eight wrestlers in each division.
