LINCOLN — Five of Upper Lake”s nine wrestlers reached the championship round and the powerful Cougar wrestling squad placed fourth out of 28 teams on Saturday at the Mark Fuller Invitational in Lincoln.
Despite entering less than a full team, the Cougars amassed 121 points and finished just 20 points behind champion Del Oro High School. Pershing County (Nevada) came in second and Nevada Union was third, just two points in front of Upper Lake.
“To have five guys in the finals of this tournament is a pretty big thing,” Upper Lake coach Tom Cox said. “Ron was flabbergasted that we were in fourth place and so was I,” Cox added of assistant coach Ron Campos. “We both thought the wrestlers of the tournament were (Bradley) Brackett and (Jon) Karlsson.”
Brackett won the 160-pound division in dramatic fashion, including an 8-7 win in the finals over a Lincoln wrestler.
“He wrestled phenomenally,” Cox said. “He had an overtime win and two one-point wins. He had a big day.”
Karlsson finished second in the heavyweight division, losing in the final to a Pershing County opponent.
“He turned heads in football and now he”s turning heads in wrestling,” Cox said of the junior.
Also reaching the finals in their respective weight classes were Bruce Tucker, who won the 152-pound title; Ward Beecher, the runner-up at 138 pounds; and Joey Valdez, the runner-up at 220 pounds.
Tucker won 6-4 in overtime in the 152-pound finals against a Lincoln opponent, that after scoring an escape point in the final seconds of regulation to forge a 4-4 tie.
Beecher lost 3-0 in the 138-pound championship match, falling to a Nevada Union wrestler who is ranked third in the Sac-Joaquin Section.
Valdez lost to a Florin wrestler in the 220-pound finals.
Two Upper Lake wrestlers who placed high at the Mark Fuller Invitational last year — Travis Coleman (first) and Tony Lopez (third) — were unable to attend this year”s competition.
“If we had those guys, we would have placed higher,” Cox said.
Upper Lake opens defense of its Coastal Mountain Conference championship with a dual meet Wednesday in Point Arena at 5 p.m. Next Saturday the Cougars will take a handful of wrestlers to the elite Foothill Tournament in Sacramento, a 101-team competition.
