NEWARK — He scored only four points in his final three matches Saturday at the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships in Newark, but Upper Lake High School senior Brandon Sneathen has a reservation in Bakersfield this weekend.
And that”s actually a good thing if you know high school wrestling.
Bakersfield is the current host of the CIF State Championships and Sneathen punched his ticket with a third-place finish in the 142-pound division at Newark Memorial High School.
Sneathen, who joins Lower Lake”s Justin Harrison, the 217-pound champion, as Lake County”s only two participants in the state tournament, just missed out on reaching the championship match Saturday when he fell 2-1 to No. 1 seed Jesse Baldazo of Liberty High School in the semifinals. Baldazo went on to win the 142-pound title.
“In my mind and in the minds of others, he outwrestled the kid,” Upper Lake coach Tom Cox said. “I was very proud of how Brandon wrestled. The way he”s wrestling now is the best he”s ever wrestled.”
The loss to Baldazo meant that Sneathen had to win his next match to secure a berth in the state tournament and he responded with a 2-1 victory over J.J. Chou of College Park, a talented sophomore who posed a serious threat to Sneathen”s chances of advancing.
“He”s really up and coming,” Cox said of Chou. “He”s one of the kids Brandon was ranked ahead of who I was really scared of.”
Sneathen, the No. 4 seed going into the tournament, scored a two-point reversal in the second round to go up 2-0. Chou picked up an escape point later in the round to make it 2-1.
“Brandon rode him out in the third round,” Cox said.
The win moved Sneathen into the third-place match against Healdsburg”s Travis Arreguin, who went 4-2 at the state tournament a year ago. The only point of the match came in the second period when Sneathen chose to start in the down position and escaped.
“In the third round he rode the kid really well and almost turned him twice,” Cox said. “He really dominated the last match on top. I have to give credit to Ron (Campos, assistant coach) for that because Ron is so good at teaching the kids to attack on top.”
Cox”s win over Arreguin “turned a lot of heads,” according to Cox.
