MIDDLETOWN — It turned out to be an impressive Saturday in more ways than one for the powerful Upper Lake High School wrestling team during the annual Dennis Jensen Invitational wrestling tournament at Middletown High School.
Unable to send a handful of their wrestlers to the Doc Buchanan Tournament in Clovis on the same day because of a scheduling glitch, the Cougars instead sent their entire squad to Middletown, where they thoroughly dominated the proceedings over the course of the two-day tournament.
How good a Saturday was it for the Cougars and coaches Tom Cox and Ron Campos?
— They won their first Dennis Jensen championship by beating the same Sutter team that finished first to the Cougars” second a year ago.
— They beat Sutter, the No. 3-ranked team in the Northern Section, for the first time in school history.
— They won eight first-place medals, just missed another at 106 pounds, and ended up with 15 medals overall.
“Ron told me he”s never been more proud of these guys,” Cox said of the Cougars” team performance. “With league coming up we don”t want to peak too early and I don”t think we have. We did have a great tournament.”
With trophies awarded to the top three teams and individual medals going to the top six wrestlers in each weight class, the Cougars beat out runner-up Sutter and third-place finisher Clear Lake in the final team standings. Kelseyville came in fourth, winning nine medals in the process, while Lower Lake took fifth.
In addition to getting first-place medals from Zeke Mendoza at 113 pounds, Ward Beecher at 132, Travis Coleman at 138, Robert Simondi at 145, Bruce Tucker at 152, Bradley Brackett at 160 and Joey Valdez at 220, the Cougars also took home the two most valuable wrestler awards, presented to Valdez in the upper weight classes and to Coleman in the lower weight classes.
Valdez pinned all seven of his opponents over the course of the competition.
“He truly dominated,” Cox said of the junior. “He even pinned one kid who he had trouble with the last time he wrestled him.”
Coleman beat one of Sutter”s top wrestlers by an 8-2 decision in the 138-pound finals.
“He beat him handily,” Cox said. “He turned in some outstanding wrestling.”
Beecher also dominated at 132 pounds, winning 10-1 against a top wrestler from Sutter and then beating Lower Lake”s Brandon Painchaud 14-4 in the championship match.
“He looked phenomenal,” Cox said.
“He did a takedown clinic on him,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said of Beecher, who scored four two-point takedowns against the veteran Painchaud.
One of the best matches of the night, according to Cox, was a 6-4 victory by Simondi over Kelseyville”s Adryan Segura at 145 pounds.
“They were tied going into the third round,” Cox said. “Robert was able to put a lot of pressure on him.”
Simondi, who has had some tough luck in close matches during his career, found a way to win this time, according to Cox.
“Ron and I were so proud of him,” Cox said.
Tucker (152) and Brackett (160) both went 7-0 in their respective weight classes. Tucker pinned Kelseyville”s Aaron Copsey in the finals while Brackett won a 4-1 decision against a Sutter opponent who is ranked in the Northern Section.
Mendoza (113) and Valdez (220) both nailed down their first tournament championships at Upper Lake.
The Cougars picked up an eighth first-place medal with Marina Beckwith winning the girls” 125-pound division.
Reaching the finals at 106 pounds was Upper Lake”s Tony Lopez, who held a commanding lead before making a mistake in the third round and being pinned by Kelseyville”s Jeffrey Ponce.
“Tony wrestled real well,” Kelseyville coach Rob Brown said. “He easily could have won that match.”
“He was ahead by 10 and got pinned, but he”ll learn a lot from this,” Cox said of Lopez. “Tony was heartbroken but he showed a lot of class.”
Adding to Upper Lake”s medal cache were Nick Davison (152) and Jon Karlsson (285) with thirds; Stoney Timmons (195) with a fourth; Nick Mai (145) and Nick Kranich (195) with fifths; and Alex Kranich (182) with a sixth.
n Clear Lake
Third at Middletown a year ago with a much more veteran team, the rebuilding Clear Lake Cardinals brought home another third-place trophy on Saturday.
Of Clear Lake”s 11 medals, freshmen and sophomores accounted for six, according to a pleased coach Ronnie Campos.
“I can”t praise those guys enough,” Campos said of his underclassmen.
Clear Lake”s two firsts went to seniors Ryan Blyleven at 126 pounds and to Shawn Larsen at 195 pounds.
“Both seniors handled themselves like the vets they are,” Campos said.
Seconds went to sophomore Rick Pierson at 120 pounds and to junior Josh Larsen at 170 pounds.
Junior Raul Rendon finished third at 182 pounds and fifths went to freshmen Bryan Holt (106), Omar Romero (113), Gabe Wolfen (132), sophomore Nathan Powers (145) and junior Matt Engle (152).
Earning a sixth-place medal was freshman Julian Lewis (220).
“This overwhelmingly young team really stepped up where last year”s team left off,” Campos said. “We placed third last year in this tournament we had a majority of juniors and seniors, so as their coach I take my hat off to them. The future looks bright for Clear Lake wrestling.”
n Kelseyville
Besides Jeffrey Ponce”s first at 106 pounds, the Kelseyville Knights picked up another first courtesy of junior varsity wrestler Cristian Ponce, who stepped up into the varsity division to win the 120-pound title, beating Clear Lake”s Pierson on points in the championship match.
Segura and Copsey added second-place medals and Jacob Martinek came in third at 113 pounds.
Also for Kelseyville, Cristian Gomora (126) and Gabe Rodriguez (220) finished fourth, and Wences Rojas, a last-minute entry who had to wrestle up two weight divisions at 132 pounds, came in sixth. Eugene Mitchell, a first-year wrestler, also finished sixth at 195 pounds.
“We won nine medals out of the 12 wrestlers we took to the tournament,” Brown said. “We”re feeling pretty good, feeling like we can take second in league this year.”
n Lower Lake
While the Lower Lake Trojans wanted to bring home a team trophy from Middletown, Fuchs said the team didn”t come away from the competition empty-handed. In fact, they received great news on Saturday when injured wrestler Dominic Cole showed up at the Middletown gym to root on his teammates.
Injured in a freak accident last week when he bumped heads with coach Fuchs during wrestling practice, Cole was taken by air ambulance to Oakland Children”s Hospital where he was diagnosed with a sprained neck and a concussion.
Fuchs said he hadn”t received an update on Cole”s condition as of Friday night.
“He showed up at the tournament (Saturday). He came home from the hospital the night before,” Fuchs said.
Team members were wearing the initials DC on their uniforms Saturday to honor their teammate.
“When he saw that he was pretty stoked,” Fuchs said.
While the Trojans didn”t have a weight class winner, Painchaud (132), Thaddeus Wetmore and Mike Warren (220) all delivered second-place medals.
Wetmore, who was 6-1 with six pins during the tournament, lost to No. 1 seed Tom Bender of Willits in the finals, while Warren, who was 5-1 with five pins, lost to Upper Lake”s Valdez.
Third-place medals went to Dominick Dingess at 138 pounds and to Thomas Cross at 170 pounds. Cross” only two losses were to the tournament”s No. 1 seed from Hoopa.
Lower Lake also picked up a sixth-place medal in the heavyweight division courtesy of freshman William Isaacs, who was competing in his first varsity tournament.
“He had medaled in all of his JV tournaments,” Fuchs said.
Middletown coach and tournament director Troy Brierly said the event ran smoothly in his final year as Middletown”s coach.
“From a tournament director”s standpoint, it was a good tournament and Upper Lake dominated the place this year, it wasn”t even close,” Brierly said. “They”re the real deal and I wouldn”t be surprised if they placed in the top six or seven teams in the section.”
Added Brierly, “We had good crowds and there was good sportsmanship all the way around. It was a really, really good experience and a good tournament for me to go out on.”
