NEWARK — Upper Lake High School 140-pounder Brandon Sneathen and Lower Lake High School 215-pounder Justin Harrison won all three of their matches Friday to reach today”s semifinals at the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships in Newark.
Sneathen and Harrison are already guaranteed medals (which go to the top eight in each weight class) but have their sights set on a much loftier goal, a berth into next weekend”s CIF State Championships, which requires a top-four finish.
If Sneathen and Harrison, both seniors, win one of their next two matches, they will advance to the state tournament.
While Sneathen and Harrison remain in the running for NCS titles, six other county wrestlers can still place as high as third when action wraps up today at Newark Memorial High School.
Upper Lake”s Fwee Chao at 103 pounds, Clear Lake”s Brandon Holt at 125 pounds, Middletown”s Jarrod Rudy at 140 pounds, Clear Lake”s Robby Hammers at 145 pounds, Clear Lake”s Derek Larsen at 171 pounds and Kelseyville”s Morgan Nelson at 285 pounds are still alive in the consolation bracket. Chao, Hammers and Larsen each won their first two matches on Friday before falling in the quarterfinals. Nelson lost his first match before winning four straight, all by first-round pin, to close out Friday”s action.
Upper Lake had a school-record 11 wrestlers qualify for the NCS tournament although only 10 were present on Friday. All 10 won at least one match.
“I”ve never had all my wrestlers win at least one match,” Upper Lake coach Tom Cox said. “So it was a pretty good day.”
Sneathen, the No. 4 seed at 140 pounds, had the most interesting day of the Lake County contingent. He won his first match when Kevin Puppo of Heritage was disqualified for not having all the necessary paperwork on file with the section. Sneathen then beat Eitan Karni of Northgate, who just missed out on earning a seed at the tournament, by 6-5 decision. In the quarterfinals, Sneathen received a forfeit when his opponent didn”t show up.
In today”s 140-pound semifinals, Sneathen”s opponent is No. 1 seed Jesse Baldazo of Liberty High School.
Lower Lake”s Harr-ison, the No. 3 seed at 215 pounds, pinned Grant Dakin of Monte Vista High School in the first round. Against Elliot Espinoza of Mission San Jose in the second round, Harrison nursed a 6-4 lead with a minute to go and won 6-5. In the quarterfinals against No. 6 seed Edgar Tolentino of San Leandro, Harrison trailed 3-1 going to the third period. With time running out and Harrison still behind 4-3, he scored a two-point takedown to win 5-4 and earn a berth into today”s semifinals against No. 2 seed Jordan Felix of DeLaSalle.
“It was just awesome,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said of Harrison”s day on the mat. “He”s got a medal now and he needs one more win to reach state. If he loses (to Felix) he needs to win one consolation match.”
Harrison was one of four Lower Lake wrestlers competing in the NCS tournament. Jessie Taylor at 140 pounds went 2-2. He won his first match by pin before losing a 14-11 heart-breaker in the second round, a match decided in the final 10 seconds.
Taylor bounced back to win his next match. Although he trailed 8-4 entering the third period, he scored a late third-round pin to stay alive. He lost to Northgate”s Karni on a second-round pin in his final match.
“To go 2-2 as a sophomore is a great job,” Fuchs said. “Now he has something to work for next year.”
Also for Lower Lake, David Jordan went 1-2 at 152 pounds and Brandon Painchaud lost his first two matches at 119 pounds.
“Our kids wrestled well,” Fuchs said. “I”m proud of all of them.”
Kelseyville”s Nelson saw all five of his matches decided by pin in the first round. He lost to Daniel Farris of Maria Carrillo High School in his first match, then came back to win his next two with quick pins — 55 and 46 seconds, respectively. He closed out his Friday by pinning Alex Stepans of Albany and Chris Valley of McKinleyville.
“I”m going to miss that guy,” Kelseyville coach Rob Brown said of Nelson, a senior. “Not just because of his wrestling, but because he”s one of the nicest kids you”ll ever meet.”
Thomas Esberg also wrestled five matches on Friday, finishing 3-2 at 135 pounds. His final high school match was an 8-6 loss to Abel Robles of San Leandro.
Among Kelseyville”s other sectional qualifiers, Jeff Ponce went 2-2 at 103 pounds, Jordan Brown finished 1-2 at 215 pounds, and freshman Adryan Segura went 0-2 at 130 pounds.
“Ponce was a big surprise,” Brown said of the performance of his 103-pounder. “He had a real good day.”
Clear Lake”s Holt was on the verge of elimination in his final match on Friday — he trailed 12-6 late in the third round — when he turned and pinned his opponent with all of 1.6 seconds to spare.
Holt opened the day with a 14-9 loss, then reeled off three straight victories by pin in the consolation bracket.
At 145 pounds, Hammers beat Mark Anderson of Castro Valley 10-6 in a first-round match before pinning No. 6 seed Orion Cosce of Hoopa just 38 seconds into their second-round match. In the quarterfinals, Hammers lost by 16-0 technical fall to No. 3 seed James Stitzman of Marin Catholic.
Larsen, like Hammers, won his first two matches before losing to a top seed — No. 1 Luke Sheridan of DeLaSalle — in the quarterfinals.
Of Clear Lake”s other wrestlers, Rodney Hen-son went 2-2 at 135 pounds, Matt Lockwood went 2-2 at 160 pounds, Ryan Blyleven went 1-2 at 112 pounds and Jake Humble went 1-2 at 119 pounds.
Middletown”s Rudy beat Joseph Chacon of Fort Bragg in his final match Friday to stay alive. Results of his other matches were not reported to the Record-Bee.
