KENTFIELD — Lower Lake High School wrestler Brandon Painchaud had himself quite a three-day weekend.
On Saturday, Pain-chaud finished fifth at 130 pounds during the King of the Mat competition at Windsor. On Monday, he fought his way to a second-place finish at The Dream Tournament at College of Marin in Kentfield.
The Dream Tourn-ament, held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was open only to wrestlers who won at qualifying tournaments held earlier this month or last month. Both Painchaud, who competed at 135 pounds, and heavyweight Cody Torres took part.
Painchaud beat the No. 4 seed in the quarterfinals by 6-3 decision before upsetting the No. 1 seed 14-5 in the semifinals. He lost in the finals to a Foothill High School opponent by 13-3 decision.
“He was pumped,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said of Painchaud”s reaction to finishing second in what amounted to a tournament of champions. “He wrestled a really, really smart tournament, the smartest he”s wrestled all year. I”m very proud of him.”
Torres ended up fourth in the heavyweight division after losing to the No. 2 seed in the semifinals. He won his next match in the consolation bracket, pinning his opponent in the second round, but then lost by pin in the third-place match.
“All three guys who finished above him weren”t in our section (North Coast Section),” Fuchs said.
Medals were awarded to the top six in each weight class.
“It was an awesome day just to see top quality wrestling everywhere you looked,” Fuchs said. “It was just fun to be a part of it.”
Painchaud was one of three Lower Lake wrestlers to win medals at Windsor. The others were freshman Dominick Dingess, who placed fourth at 125 pounds, and sophomore Thomas Cross, who was fourth at 160 pounds.
Dingess upset the fourth and fifth seeds in his first two matches before losing in the semifinals.
“He came out on fire,” Fuchs said.
Cross, the fourth seed at 160 pounds, held serve with his fourth-place finish.
“He had an awesome day,” Fuchs added.
Lower Lake tied for 17th place in the 32-team standings. Antioch won the team title. The best finish by a Lake County team was Kelseyville, which came in 16th.
Medal winners for coach Rob Brown”s Knights were Jeffry Ponce, fourth at 115 pounds; Jordan Brown, fourth at 218 pounds; Wences Rojas, fifth at 122 pounds; and Christian Ponce, seventh at 115 pounds.
“Our kids were wrestling pretty well,” Brown said.
Of the 12 wrestlers the Knights took to the tournament, all but one won at least one match.
Jeffry Ponce, who lost for the first time this season, won each of his first two matches before dropping the next two, including a 4-3 decision to Liberty High School”s Jeremy Fio in the third-place match. Ponce is now 17-2 on the season.
Jordan Brown, now 14-5 overall, won his first two matches by pin.
“Jeffry and Jordan were hanging in there pretty good,” Brown said of his top two finishers.
Rojas went 4-1 at 122 pounds. After receiving a first-round bye, he lost his next match by pin to Daniel Lacebal of Las Plumas, who trailed 13-1 at one point. Rojas came back with four straight wins to claim fifth.
