BRENTWOOD — If Santa needs a couple of extra hands to help pull his sled, look no farther than Lower Lake High School wrestlers Brandon Painchaud and Cody Torres.
Together on Wednesday they combined for one of the best days on the mats in the school”s storied wrestling history.
Painchaud at 135 pounds and Torres in the heavyweight division navigated the competition during the final day of the Liberty Tournament every bit as skillfully as Santa”s reindeer traverse the Christmas Eve sky.
“I have a Kool-Aid smile right now, ear to ear,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said after watching both wrestlers climb through the consolation bracket in their respective weight classes to win third-place medals in a tournament comparable to the North Coast Section Championships next March.
“I was trying to come up with a single word for it,” Fuchs said while trying to describe the day both Torres and Painchaud experienced on the maps, “but I”m not sure what that word is.”
Fantastic will probably do because it was that … at the very least.
Painchaud, who was knocked into the consolation bracket on Tuesday by the tournament”s No. 1 seed, came back on Wednesday to win five straight matches, including a victory over that same No. 1 seed. Along the way he also beat the No. 2 seed, Upper Lake”s Ward Beecher, and the No. 7 seed in sudden-death overtime in the third-place match.
Torres began Wednesday in the winner”s bracket but lost to the No. 2 seed in the quarterfinals. He bounced back with three straight wins to reach the third-place match where he beat that same No. 2 seed by second-round pin.
“To come back and beat someone who beat you the other day or the same day, that”s pretty amazing,” Fuchs said. “And they beat some of the top kids in the section, so that should help us for seeding (at the section championships).”
Painchaud, who was 2-1 after Tuesday”s opening rounds, won by pin in his first match Wednesday. He followed that up with a 6-3 decision over the No. 6 seed to guarantee himself a top-eight medal, but his day was just getting started.
Painchaud took care of Beecher by 8-1 decision in his third match of the day, then he knocked off the No. 1 seed by 4-3 decision.
Facing the No. 7 seed in the third-place match, a weary Painchaud battled to an 8-8 tie in regulation before winning 11-10 in sudden-death overtime.
“He told me after his fifth match of the day, ?Coach I couldn”t wrestle another match if I wanted to,”” Fuchs said.
Torres lost 5-4 to the No. 2 seed in his first match Wednesday in the quarterfinals, a controversial two-point nearfall working against him, according to Fuchs.
Torres rallied with an 8-4 decision in his first consolation match, pinned the No. 7 seed in his next match, and then won 2-1 in overtime in his third match of the day, a victory that propelled him into the third-place match against the No. 2-seeded wrestler he had started his day against.
This time it was a different story.
Torres dominated from the start, finally turning and pinning him in the second round for the victory and third place.
As a result of finishing third, both Torres and Painchaud received invitations to participate in the Dream Tournament on Jan. 17 (Martin Luther King Day) at the College of Marin in Kentfield.
A third Lower Lake wrestler, 171-pounder Thaddeus Wetmore, began the day in the quarterfinals but lost to the No. 1 seed, knocking him into the consolation bracket. Wetmore lost by pin in his next match to a Clayton Valley wrestler.
“That guy was pretty good,” Fuchs said of Wetmore”s opponent in the consolation match.
“He (Wetmore) is only a sophomore, so I can”t wait to see how far he”s come along by the end of the season,” Fuchs said.
“This is huge, I”m so proud of these kids,” Fuchs said of Painchaud, Torres and Wetmore.
While Lower Lake had a great day on the mats Wednesday, finishing 16th overall out of 53 teams, Upper Lake”s wrestlers struggled. Five qualified for the second day of competition and two — Beecher and 125-pounder Travis Coleman — began the day in the winner”s bracket. Both lost in the quarterfinals to fall into the consolation bracket. Beecher held on win an eighth-place medal, finishing the tournament 4-3. Coleman was eliminated after losing his first consolation match.
“We kind of got our butts kicked today, but we”ll come back,” Upper Lake coach Tom Cox said.
Upper Lake”s Charlie Coburn at 160 pounds, Joey Valdez at 215 pounds and Jacob Warner in the heavyweight division all began Wednesday in the consolation bracket but didn”t advance into the medal round.
There was one bit of good news for the Cou-gars. In a girls” tourney taking place Wednesday at the same location, Emily Knispel came in fourth at 146 pounds.
Lake County also brought home a third-place medal from the girls” tournament as Middletown freshman Sierra Egger posted a 3-1 record in the 103-pound division.
One of five girls on the Middletown team, Egger is every bit the wrestler — she posted a 3-2 record last weekend against boys in the Fort Bragg Tournament.
“I”m not totally surprised,” Middletown coach Troy Brierly said. “She”s been good since the first day of practice.”
All three of Egger”s wins at Brentwood were pins and her lone loss was to the No. 1 seed.
“She”s one of those kids who is dedicated to the sport,” Brierly said. “The girls are out there because they want to be there.”
Brierly said the annual Middletown Invitational, which takes place Jan. 7-8, may even offer a girls” weight division (most likely 108 pounds) for the first time in the tournament”s history.
