LAKEPORT — Upper Lake High School won its first Coastal Mountain Conference wrestling title this past season and if the results of the Lake County Junior High School Wrestling Championships on Wednesday at Terrace Middle School are any indication, it won”t be the Cougars” last.
Upper Lake Junior High edged out Oak Hill Middle School 68-66 to win the team title. Host Terrace came in third with 48 points.
Even though several of Upper Lake”s top wrestlers were unable to attend the tournament, the seven wrestlers the school did send came away with five firsts, a second and a third.
Tony Lopez, Travis Coleman, Dave Ramos, Steve Hochleutner and Travis Warren all brought home first-place medals. Luke Mia finished second, his only loss coming to teammate Coleman in the 100-pound finals, and Bill Robinson finished third at 160 pounds.
Lopez, Ramos and Coleman all had undefeated seasons. Coleman, an eighth-grader, also won his division last year. Ramos won by pin or technical fall in all of his matches this season.
“I take my hat off to Upper Lake, they”re studs,” Oak Hill Middle School coach Ed Fuchs said.
For runner-up Oak Hill Middle School of Clearlake, the tournament marked the final time the Southshore”s junior high wrestlers will be competing under the Oak Hill banner since the school is being closed at the end of the current school year.
“We even had special T-shirts made for the tournament,” Fuchs said. “They said ?Oak Hill Wrestling” on the front and ?Last Chance 2009” on the back.
“Our motto going into the tournament was ?Let”s bring the championship back to Oak Hill one last time,”” Fuchs added.
The Rams came close but couldn”t quite catch Upper Lake.
Joseph Sarro, an eighth-grader at Oak Hill, won one of the more exciting matches of the tournament as his reversal with two seconds left gave him a 9-7 victory in his weight division final.
Oak Hill wrestlers Andrew Subjack, Bobby Sanchez, Thomas Cross, V.J. Lopez and Ben Illia all came in second, while thirds went to Ryan Dahneke and Cruz Torres.
“I”m proud of all the guys for the hard work they put in during such a short season,” Fuchs said. “I wish I had more time to coach them.”
