NEWARK — Cody Torres isn”t the fourth seed for nothing. The Lower Lake High School senior heavyweight pinned his way into the semifinals on Friday at the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships at Newark Memorial High School.
And he isn”t the only seeded wrestler from Lake County sitting pretty after day one of the two-day, double-elimination tournament.
Clear Lake High School”s Robby Hammers, the fourth seed at 152 pounds, also won all three of his matches to reach the semifinals.
Torres and Hammers not only guaranteed themselves sectional medals (awarded to the top eight in each weight class) with their stellar performances on Friday, but they put themselves in a position where a win in their first match today will send them to the CIF State Championships next weekend in Bakersfield. The top four in each weight class advance to Bakersfield. If either Torres or Hammers — or both — lose in the semifinals today, they”ll need to win their next match to punch their tickets to the state meet.
“He”s showing it, he”s focused,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said of Torres” three-match, three-pin blitz on Friday.
Torres pinned Salvador Patino of Albany in the first round to open the tournament. He came back with a second-round pin of Justin-Siena”s Michael Deely to reach the quarterfinals, where he then pinned Spencer Miller of Foothill in the second round to advance to the semifinals.
Torres improved to 32-8 on the season and is trying to become the second Lower Lake wrestler in as many years to win a section title and qualify for the state meet. A year ago, Justin Harrison won at 215 pounds.
“Maybe I should retire now,” Fuchs joked.
Hammers” run to the semifinals was no less impressive. The only Clear Lake wrestler out of eight to win all three of his matches Friday, Hammers pinned Devin Brackett of American High School in the first round to get things rolling. A 9-2 decision over Carlos Green of Freedom put Hammers in the quarterfinals, where he turned back Terin O”Callaghan of Livermore 11-7.
Hammers is 35-9 on the season.
Of the 33 Lake County wrestlers who qualified for the sectional meet, only nine will return to the mats for day two. That in itself is quite the feat, according to Upper Lake High School coach Tom Cox, who said the section added an extra round in the consolation bracket this year.
“Normally they only wrestle three rounds of consolation on day one,” Cox said. “This year it”s four rounds, so some of our guys had to wrestle five matches today. If you make it to the second day here you”re in pretty good company. The brackets started with 40 wrestlers and now there”s only 12 left.”
While Torres and Hammers are the only two Lake County wrestlers still alive in the championship bracket, seven others are hanging tough in the consolation bracket, having suffered one loss each. They are Wences Rojas of Kelseyville and Travis Coleman of Upper Lake at 119 pounds; Ward Beecher of Upper Lake and Jake Humble of Clear Lake at 125 pounds; No. 7 seed Bruce Tucker of Upper Lake at 140 pounds; Matt Lockwood of Clear Lake at 160 pounds; and Robert Morfin of Clear Lake at 215 pounds.
— Rojas won his first match, lost his second and rallied with three straight wins.
— Coleman lost his first match before winning the next four in a row.
— Beecher won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals, lost to No. 1 seed Joe Moita of De La Salle, but rallied with two straight wins in the consolation bracket.
— Humble won his first match, lost his second, then won two in a row in the consolation bracket, including a 17-1 technical fall in his final match Friday.
— Tucker, like teammate Beecher, won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals, where he fell 5-1 to No. 2 seed Nolan Kajiwara of James Logan High School.
— Lockwood won his first match, lost his second and came back with two straight victories in the consolation bracket.
— Morfin won each of his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals, where he was pinned by No. 1 seed Kyle Clark of Antioch.
All seven county wrestlers still alive in the consolation bracket need to win three straight matches today to reach the third-place match, which means a trip to the state meet. All seven will finish no worse than eighth and bring home a medal if they win their first match today.
The county just missed having a 10th qualifier for day two, but Upper Lake High School sophomore 215-pounder Joe Valdez, a first-year wrestler, couldn”t hold a 6-1 lead late in the third period and was pinned with 40 seconds left, which eliminated him from the tournament.
Valdez lost his first match of the day and won the next three before sustaining his second loss. Had he won his final match Friday, he would have met Clear Lake”s Morfin today in the consolation bracket.
“I was real pleased with how the kids wrestled,” Cox said. “It”s the first time we”ve had three make it this far (to the second day).”
Even better, all three are underclassmen — Beecher and Coleman are sophomores while Tucker is a junior.
Of the seven Cougars who were eliminated on Friday, five –? Valdez, Bradley Brackett, Robert Simondi, Tony Lopez and Jacob Warner — all won at least two matches.
Warner, a senior heavyweight, finished 2-2.
“He ended his high school career and did a great job,” Cox said. “He”s a four-year wrestler and vastly improved.”
Kelseyville coach Rob Brown, who took four wrestlers to the tournament, said that Rojas, his lone day-one survivor, dominated all three of his opponents in the consolation bracket after losing his second match of the day.
Rojas sandwiched 10-4 and 6-0 decisions around a pin in his three consolation victories.
“He”s in a pretty good position,” Brown said.
If Rojas and Coleman win in their first match today, they”ll meet in the next round.
Fuchs, who took five wrestlers to the tournament, said a long and tiring day on the mats was well worth it, not only for Torres, but also for any wrestling aficionado.
“There were lots of great matches, lots of upsets,” Fuchs said. “I”m loving the environment.”
De La Salle led in the team standings after day one with 181.5 points. Liberty (123.5), College Park (122) and James Logan (119) were next in line. Clear Lake was 18th with 63.5 points and Upper Lake 23rd with 52.
