SUTTER — Upper Lake High School entered eight wrestlers and brought home eight medals from the Sutter Junior Varsity Tournament on Saturday in Sutter.
With Upper Lake”s varsity wrestlers getting the weekend off to prepare for Wednesday”s big conference dual with Clear Lake — both teams bring 4-0 records into that match — Upper Lake”s JVs earned two firsts, two seconds, two thirds and two fourths. The weight class winners were Nick Mai, who went 4-0 at 138 pounds, and Alex Kranich, who went 4-0 at 195 pounds.
Owing to Upper Lake”s abundance of solid middleweights at the varsity level, the Cougars haven”t been able to find Mai a starting spot on the varsity, at least not yet.
“He”d be the starting 138-pounder for a lot of teams,” Upper Lake coach Tom Cox said.
“We just don”t have room for him at the varsity with Ward (Beecher), Travis (Coleman), Robert (Simondi) and Bruce (Tucker),” Cox said. “He wrestled some good matches and had a good tournament.”
Second-place medals went to Luke Mai, who was 3-1 at 152 pounds, and to Nick Kranich, who was 3-1 at 182 pounds. Third-place medals were awarded to Tyler Banks at 160 pounds and Kyle Karlsson at 182 pounds, and fourths went to Marina Beckwith at 122 pounds and Arthur Wilkie at 170 pounds.
Following their conference match on Wednesday, the Cougars” top wrestlers hit the road Friday and Saturday for the Mission San Jose Invitational in Fremont.
