BAKERSFIELD — If you”ve ever watched your favorite professional sports team lose by a run, a point or a goal in Game 7 of the playoffs, you”ll understand how Upper Lake 140-pounder Robbie Avery feels after watching his high school career end with 1-0 loss on Saturday at the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield.
One win away from gaining the medal round, Avery lost 1-0 to Southern Section champion Kyle Chene of Irvine High School early Saturday morning in an elimination match. Chene went on to finish seventh.
“Robbie had a good shot (at a takedown) early in the match, but it didn”t go his way,” Upper Lake coach Tom Cox said. “After that Robbie started wrestling defensively, which he shouldn”t have done.”
Avery, the North Coast Section runner-up, and Chene were scoreless until the start of the second round when Chene elected for the down position.
“Robbie rode him for a full minute before he (Chene) finally escaped,” Cox said of the only point scored during the match.
It was still 1-0 at the start of the third round when Avery, like Chene, chose the down position to start the round.
“Really that has been Robbie”s only Achilles” heel this season,” Cox said. “He has not been able to escape from good wrestlers in the down position.”
Chene kept a firm grasp on Avery and was able to apply a double arm bar, which allowed him to avoid any stalling call, according to Cox. Chene used up the clock and was able to hang on for the victory.
“After he lost, he didn”t take it as hard as he thought he would,” Cox said of Avery. “He knew he did everything he could do. He knew he did everything right.”
And not just during the state tournament, according to Cox, but all season. An athlete once on the edge, one who struggled to stay eligible in school and out of trouble his freshman and sophomore years, Avery was nothing but a model student — and athlete — last year as a junior, when he finished 49-4, and again this year as a senior, when he posted a 44-10 record against much stiffer competition.
“He stayed true to the goal he had, the goal he set for himself,” Cox said of Avery”s work ethic and determination to be the best. “When his friends wanted to go out partying, he worked out.
“The person he is now is so much better than the person he was before,” Cox said.
As a result the Cougars” program has reaped incredible dividends, according to Cox.
“There wasn”t a better kid to mentor our younger guys, to show them what it takes if you want to be successful,” Cox said. “He”s a professional. He”s one guy Ron (Campos, assistant coach) and I never had to worry about. He does everything he needs to do without being told.”
Upper Lake”s program, once a non-factor in the Coastal Mountain Conference, won its first conference title this season and Cox said Avery had more to do with that than anyone else.
“We might have kids who go on and win a state medal in the future,” Cox said, “but what he”s done for the program, no one could have done more. We needed someone to be the leader and that was Robbie. He”s not a rah-rah guy, he”s just someone who went out there and did it.”
Avery completed the state tournament with a 2-2 record. He won his first two matches on Friday and then lost 3-1 in the quarterfinals to Nicholas Sierra, the Central Section champion.
Cody Roderbaugh, the Central Coast champion, pinned Javier Sanchez in the championship match. Vlad Dombrovsky came in third, Jessie Stafford was fourth, Josh Hotta finished fifth, Sierra was sixth, Chene was seventh and Jonah Cruz came in eighth.
The top eight finishers receive medals.
