NEWARK — In a title bout matching the top two seeds, David Rios of Liberty held off No. 2 seed Robbie Avery of Upper Lake 4-2 in the 140-pound championship match Saturday night during the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships at Newark.
Avery, one of two Upper Lake medalists in the NCS tournament, locked up a berth in this weekend”s CIF State Championships in Bakersfield with a third-round pin of Nate Vincent of Dublin in the semifinals held earlier in the day.
That Avery had as much energy as he did on Saturday was nothing short of a miracle, according to Upper Lake coach Tom Cox, who said Avery received a big scare on Thursday, the day before the start of the sectional meet, when he came down with a 24-hour flu bug.
“Robbie was just throwing up like crazy in the locker room,” Cox said. “I was thinking, ?This is what we”ve been working for for the last four years and he comes down with the flu now.”
“Robbie”s a tough kid and he told me that”s the worst he”s ever felt,” Cox added. “He told me he felt like he was going to die.”
After a tough second-round match on Friday, a 5-3 victory over David Wilson of Mission San Jose, Avery began to pick up the pace a bit, according to Cox. He defeated Brian Maloney of De La Salle by 15-4 major decision in the quarterfinals to finish the day at 3-0.
On Saturday, Avery dominated Vincent in the semifinals, building a 9-1 lead before pinning him early in the third period.
“He was really in control of the match the whole time,” Cox said.
Avery also beat Vincent, who is only a sophomore, 11-6 early last month at the Mission San Jose Tournament.
“He”s a great kid,” Cox said of Vincent. “After the match he came up to us and told us that Robbie was the best kid he”s ever wrestled.”
In the championship match against Rios, Avery scored the first two points of the match but Rios chipped away and tied it at 2 with two escape points. A takedown put Rios on top 4-2 late in the second period and the third period was pretty much uneventful, according to Cox.
“He (Rios) pretty much stalled the whole period,” Cox said. “He was called once (for stalling) and he could have been called again later in the period, but it wouldn”t have changed the outcome of the match.”
A first stalling call carries only a warning, while second and third offenses are one-point penalties each time.
“You”re rarely called for stalling three times in one period,” Cox said of Rios” judicious use of the clock in the final period.
“He was upset in the beginning,” Cox said of Avery”s reaction to finishing second, “but he”s in a good frame of mind now. He feels like he”s better than Rios and should they meet again at state, Robbie feels like he can beat him.”
The NCS championship was the third straight for Rios, who placed at the state meet two years ago.
Medals are awarded to the top eight finishers in each of the 14 weight divisions at the sectionals. Only the top four advance to the state tournament and Avery becomes only the second Upper Lake wrestler ever to make it that far, joining Leonard Meyer (1985). He”s also the first Cougar to win two section medals, improving on his sixth-place finish of a year ago.
Upper Lake 215-pound Randy Dickinson also came home with a medal, placing sixth. After going 2-1 on Friday, Dickinson, the No. 8 seed, won his first two matches on Saturday, beating Ryan Korner of Liberty by fall in overtime and then upsetting No. 7 seed Ace Pittman of Deer Valley 13-9. Against Sean Rogers of College Park in the consolation semifinals, Rogers prevailed 3-1, knocking Dickinson into the fifth-place match against Jordan Felix of De La Salle. Felix pinned Dickinson late in the first round.
Five other Lake County wrestlers also made it to the second day of the two-day competition, including Upper Lake 103-pounder James Lolonis, who fell one victory short of earning a medal. He lost to Arnold Hwa of Mission San Jose 12-7, ending his tournament. Hwa went on to finish fifth.
“James” only two losses during the tournament were to the guy who placed second and the guy who placed fourth,” Cox said. “He deserved to win a medal but he just had a bad draw.”
Among Lake County”s other first-day survivors:
— Tyler Johnson of Lower Lake lost his first match on Saturday at 135 pounds, falling 14-10 to Joseph Guerra of Antioch.
“The match went down to the wire,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said. “There were some close calls. He wrestled a good wrestler and I thought they were evenly matched.”
Johnson closes out the season with a single-season school record of 162 takedowns.
— Brandon Sneathen of Upper Lake, also at 135 pounds, lost in his first match by default to Bill Hararah of Mission San Jose because he didn”t make weight during Saturday”s weigh-ins (he was a half-pound too heavy).
–Taylor Hoefer of Middletown, competing at 152 pounds, opened Saturday by falling 5-2 to Chris Leyen of Liberty. A win would have put Hoefer into the medal round.
“I”m very proud of all my kids for their sportsmanship and hard wrestling down there,” Middletown coach Troy Brierly said.
— Justin Harrison of Lower Lake also missed the medal round by a single victory, losing his first match Saturday by pin to Maurice Auferheide of Livermore.
Harrison led nearly the entire way, according to Fuchs. It was 2-1 after the first round and 4-3 after the second round. Harrison was up 7-5 in the third period when Auferheide turned him and pinned him with 30 seconds remaining.
“He wrestled a great match and a great wrestler, except for the last 30 seconds,” Fuchs said. “Justin is only a junior, so I”m sure that will motivate him next season.”
De La Salle of Concord won the team title with 232 points, Liberty was second with 211.5, and James Logan of Union City finished third with 184.5. Upper Lake ended up 23rd out of 87 schools.
Tournament notes: Brian Hatfield of Upper Lake, the Coastal Mountain Conference 189-pound champion, was forced to withdraw from the sectionals because of shoulder injury he sustained on Wednesday.
