MCKINLEYVILLE — The smallest high school in Lake County scored one of the biggest wrestling coups by a county team in a long, long time by winning the predominantly large-school McKinleyville Tournament on Saturday.
Upper Lake”s Cougars coached by Tom Cox won by a comfortable margin over large school power Del Norte to take the tournament title. In the process, the Cougars had four wrestlers win their weight divisions and six others finish in the top four.
“We”ve done a lot of work in the offseason and have been pushing toward this for four years,” said Cox, who took over the Upper Lake program when this year”s seniors were freshmen. “We”re excited. If we can keep the team we have now on the mat by the end of the year, we”re going to be real tough to beat.”
James Lolonis (103 pounds), Robbie Avery (140), Brian Hatfield (189) and Randy Dickinson (215) all won their weight classes. Hatfield pinned all four of his opponents along the way, while Avery and Dickinson also posted 4-0 records at the tournament. Lolonis went 3-0, including a victory by technical fall in the finals. Avery and Dickinson also were dominant in their championship matches, Avery winning 19-6 and Dickinson 14-8.
The Cougars had a fifth wrestler make the finals, but Ben Britton lost by decision at 160 pounds.
Third-place medals went to Brandon Sneathen at 145 pounds, Amos Burns at 152 pounds and Sam Wurm at 285 pounds.
Two other Cougars — Fwee Chao at 112 pounds and Andrew Lane at 119 pounds — came in fourth.
with 3-2 records.
Upper Lake returns to action Saturday in the Fort Bragg Tournament.
