LOWER LAKE — The Upper Lake Cougars improved to 5-0 in the Coastal Mountain Conference wrestling standings with a pair of wins on Wednesday during a tri-team meet at Lower Lake High School.
Upper Lake defeated Lower Lake 74-18 and Willits 65-12 in a dual where all 14 weight divisions were contested. Willits also beat Lower Lake 54-26.
“It was a wakeup call after what happened the other night,” Upper Lake head coach Tom Cox said of the Cougars” dual win at Middletown on Monday. “We lost three matches that could have gone either way and still won the match. If we had done that against Willits we could have lost.”
The Cougars won 11 of the 14 weight divisions against the Wolverines, all but two of them by pin, and scored upsets at 135 pounds and 189 pounds, where Nick Davidson and Andrew Frazier won by pin.
“Davidson wrestled the best match he”s ever wrestled,” Cox said of Upper Lake”s victory at 135 pounds.
Also winning by pin were Cougars Travis Coleman at 112 pounds; Bruce Tucker at 140 pounds; Brandon Sneathen at 145 pounds; Bradley Brackett — in 36 seconds — at 152 pounds; Charlie Coburn at 160 pounds; Ben Britten at 171 pounds; and Cory Barnett at 215 pounds.
Upper Lake picked up another five team points when Ward Beecher beat Willits” Jacob Stubblefield, a three-time North Coast Section qualifier, by a 20-4 technical fall at 130 pounds. Fwee Chao provided the Cougars with another victory at 119 pounds by taking a 15-6 major decision.
Seven matches were contested between Lower Lake and Upper Lake in their dual. The other seven were either forfeits or double-forfeits.
In the seven contested matches, Brandon Painchaud of Lower Lake won by first-round pin at 125 pounds; Upper Lake”s Davidson defeated Thomas Cross by 19-2 technical fall at 135 pounds; Upper Lake”s Coburn won by 15-3 decision over Emanuel Simms at 160 pounds; Upper Lake”s Britten pinned Thadeaus Wetmore at 171 pounds; Upper Lake”s Frazier pinned Michael Payne at 189 pounds; and Lower Lake”s Justin Harrison pinned Barnett at 215 pounds.
“I was very impressed with the way we wrestled,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said.
“I told my guys not to worry about the dual scores because we had only seven guys. I told them it”s all about individual effort.”
Fuchs said the Cougars also impressed him.
“I take my hat off to them,” Fuchs said. “Upper Lake has raised the bar in the county and we hope to get there in a couple of seasons. They looked great.”
In the Lower Lake-Willits dual, the Trojans won five of the seven contested matches, something that pleased Fuchs.
“I was very impressed with the way we came out because we”ve been coming out flat (in the first match) and we didn”t today,” Fuchs said.
Lower Lake picked up wins at 112 pounds, where Johnny Radford prevailed in a 16-0 technical fall; at 119 pounds behind an 11-4 decision by Painchaud; at 160 pounds, where Simms won by second-round pin; at 171 pounds, where Will Stiles pinned his opponent in the second round; and at 215 pounds, where Harrison won on a first-round pin.
Harrison is 27-2 this season with 26 pins.
For Upper Lake, Beecher improved to 31-5, Chao to 29-4 and Sneathen to 28-5.
Next up for Upper Lake is the Mission San Jose Tournament on Friday and Saturday. Sneathen is seeded No. 2 at 140 pounds in one of the state”s most prestigious tourneys and Beecher is the No. 8 seed at 125 pounds. Another Lake County wrestler, Clear Lake”s Jake Humble, is the No. 4 seed at 119 pounds.
Lower Lake”s wrestlers return to action Saturday in the Ukiah Tournament.
