LOWER LAKE — When the final matches had been wrestled and the gym began to empty Saturday evening at Lower Lake High School, the smiles worn by three Lake County wrestling coaches pretty much said it all.
Upper Lake, coached by Tom Cox and Ron Campos, had just won its fourth straight North Coast Section Team Dual Championship after a convincing 53-21 win over St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo in the Division III championship match. As the Cougars were pulling off a four-peat, the Kelseyville Knights, wrestling on a neighboring mat, were chalking up their own no-doubt-about-it victory over the McKinleyville Panthers, 51-24, in the third-place match.
Upper Lake, on a wrestling roll since 2009, is racking up pennants left and right these days. The Cougars are also the three-time champions of the Coastal Mountain Conference and can make it four in a row this Saturday in Fort Bragg. Right behind them in the CMC standings this year are the Knights.
Both programs have come a long way in a short time under the guidance of Cox/Campos at Upper Lake and Rob Brown at Kelseyville.
“One team was as low as we were five years ago (in the CMC standings) and that was Kelseyville,” Cox said of the state of Upper Lake and Kelseyville wrestling back in 2007-08, when both teams were near the bottom of the CMC standings. “We”ve turned things around with a lot of hard work and so has Kelseyville.”
If Upper Lake is the team to beat these days, Kelseyville is the team that most wants to beat them, according to Brown, who said the success of the Cougars” program has helped the Knights turn things around.
“Our kids are hungry for it,” Brown said. “So were Upper Lake”s kids a few years ago and now they”ve got it. Our kids see Upper Lake and they want to do better. Upper Lake is where my team wants to be.”
While Upper Lake was throttling Clear Lake, 60-15, and California School for the Deaf, 53-24, en route to the finals, Kelseyville”s first victim on Saturday also turned out to be its last, none other than the McKinleyville squad the Knights beat 42-38 in the opening round, a dual that came down to the final match – Kelseyville won by pin to erase a 38-36 deficit.
“I think they went into it (the tournament) a little overwhelmed, they weren”t even sure if they belonged there,” Brown said of his wrestlers.
But after beating McKinleyville, the Knights wrestled more aggressively and began to pick up momentum, according to Brown. Although they lost in their next match to St. Patrick/St. Vincent, 37-25, dropping them into the consolation bracket, the Knights were pretty much unstoppable after that. They hammered Cardinal Newman 64-24 in the consolation semifinals before beating McKinleyville for the second time.
“After the first McKinleyville match we came alive and really couldn”t do anything wrong,” Brown said.
Kelseyville”s spark plugs during the tournament were the quartet of Jeffrey Ponce at 108 pounds, Jacob Martinez at 115 pounds, Wences Rojas at 134 pounds and Adryan Segura at 147 pounds.
“They all wrestled really well,” Brown said.
Upper Lake
In 2009 the Cougars won their first NCS Team Dual by beating St. Patrick/St. Vincent in the finals. Three years later they met up with the Bruins again and achieved the same result.
Even with senior Robert Simondi out of the lineup, the Cougars rolled through the competition.
Against St. Patrick/St. Vincent in the finals, the first two matches set the tone for what was to follow.
Travis Coleman led off for the Cougars at 147 pounds and fell behind 7-1 in the second round before turning and pinning his opponent. Bruce Tucker was next at 154 pounds and what appeared to be a mismatch at first – Tucker led 8-2 going to the third round – turned into a real battle as Tucker held on for a 10-8 win.
After the Cougars received a forfeit at 162 pounds, they had a 15-0 lead on the scoreboard.
“Travis and Bruce were facing two of their better guys,” Cox said. “To get two wins there … that was huge.”
Bradley Brackett dominated his opponent 14-5 at 172 pounds before the Cougars lost by pin at 182 pounds. But three straight wins followed as the Cougars sealed the match and the team section title.
Alex Kranich, undefeated on the day, pinned his opponent at 195 pounds, Joey Valdez did the same at 222 pounds, and Upper Lake won by forfeit in the heavyweight division.
“Alex was the star of the day for us,” Cox said. “What he did today was so unexpected.”
At 108 pounds the Bruins” lightning-quick Paolo Yap, one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the North Coast Section, had all he could handle in beating Upper Lake”s Tony Lopez 7-5.
“Tony won”t back down from anyone,” Cox said.
Upper Lake won four of the final five matches, including a 16-7 victory by Zeke Mendoza at 115 pounds and Nick Mai”s first-round pin at 128 pounds.
Looking back on his team”s amazing run, Cox said one of the things he is most proud of are the six wrestlers on his 2012 roster who have 100 or more career victories. Nick Davison is the latest to join that club as he picked up a forfeit against St. Patrick/St. Vincent for his 100th win. Also members of that club are Coleman, Tucker, Simondi, Brackett and Ward Beecher.
“Before this group came along Upper Lake had a total of two guys who had won 100 matches during their careers,” Cox said. “And we have six on this team.”
While the Cougars have a group of talented seniors on the roster, Cox and Campos both said Upper Lake should have enough talent left next season to make a run at a fifth consecutive NCS Team Dual.
“This is a special group,” Cox said.
While the Cougars and Knights were having a good time on Saturday, the Clear Lake Cardinals, third behind Upper Lake and Kelseyville in the CMC regular-season standings, didn”t have much success after beating Stuart Hall 60-6 in a first-round match. Upper Lake knocked Clear Lake into the consolation bracket where the Cardinals fell 36-24 to Cardinal Newman, ending their day in the double-elimination tournament.
The Cardinals were without coach Ronnie Campos, who Clear Lake reportedly placed on administrative leave prior to Saturday”s Team Duals, according to the school”s athletic director, Milo Meyer.
The disciplinary action follows in the wake of an email sent last week by Brown to Kelseyville High Principal Matt Cockerton, athletic director Steve Olson and Kelseyville Unified School District Superintendent Dave McQueen. According to the email, Campos allegedly removed a draft report card of a Kelseyville High wrestler from Kelseyville”s wrestling room. Clear Lake and the Lakeport Unified School District are investigating the matter.
