MIDDLETOWN >> There wasn”t an unhappy Lake County coach in the bunch on Saturday as the two-day Jensen Invitational wrestling tournament wrapped up at Middletown High School.
Four of Lake County”s five high school participated in a field that also included tournament champion Fort Bragg with 142 points and third-place finisher Willits with 129. Tournament host Middletown was sandwiched in between with 131? points.
“It was a great weekend,” Middletown coach Brian Hunt said. “I was pleasantly surprised by our second-place finish ? I was just hoping to be in the top five, especially with only nine kids wrestling.”
Middletown picked up a handful of medals along the way. Medals were awarded down to six places among the boys and three among the girls. Leading the way for the Mustangs was Wyatt Jones, the 170-pound winner who was voted the tournament”s outstanding heavyweight. Another first went to Isabella Quintana-Ocken in the girls” 154-pound division where she won by decision over previously undefeated Christina Navarro of Kelseyville.
Other Middletown medalists were Jonathan Wilson at 132 pounds (second), Scott Kelly at 152 pounds (third), Noah Williams at 138 pounds (third), Saul Padilla at 195 pounds (third), Clinton Crayne at 120 pounds (fourth), Cameron Ketchum (fifth) at 195 pounds and Jake Samson at 126 pounds (fifth) among the boys, and Kailei Foltmer at 136 pounds (second) among the girls.
“Jones (18-2 on the season) wrestled like a stud all weekend,” Hunt said. “All the kids wrestled well. We had a phenomenal weekend.”
Lower Lake
While the Lower Lake Trojans only placed eighth in the field, coach Ed Fuchs said he had no problem with that, especially with four of his top wrestlers not present (two were held out injured and two competed Saturday at the Mat Classic in Livermore).
“That”s just fine with me,” Fuchs said. “The team scoring is not a big deal until we get into the (Coastal Mountain Conference) duals.”
Medalists for the Trojans at Middletown included Peerliss Brooke, who lost to Kelseyville”s Hayden Turner in the 182-pound finals.
“It was a great match, one of the best matches I”ve seen,” Hunt said.
Along with Brooke”s second-place medal, the Trojans received fourth-place medals from 106-pounder Dakota Apodaca, 152-pounder Brendan Maninger and 220-pounder Weeden Wetmore. Isaiah Klein added a fifth-place medal at 120 pounds as did Jeremiah Long at 138 pounds while Dahsaan Booker finished sixth at 126 pounds.
On the girls” side of the bracket, Rachele Wagner finished third at 111 pounds.
Lower Lake”s medal cache increased by two thanks to the participation of senior William Isaacs and sophomore Gabe Freeman in the Mat Classic at Granada High School.
Freeman, the No. 8 seed at 145 pounds, went 4-1, his only loss coming to the No. 1 seed. He ended up tied for third because of his match count.
Isaacs, a state qualifier for the Trojans a year ago in the heavyweight division, opened his senior season by going 4-0 in Middletown on Friday and 4-0 in Livermore on Saturday. The No. 2 seed at Livermore, Isaacs pinned the the No. 3 seed in the first round of their semifinal match. He went on to beat Rangel Lowry of Freedom High School, the No. 1 seed, 5-2 in the championship match.
Isaacs has already beaten two section-ranked heavyweights — Lowry and Hoopa”s Robert Dorgan — in his first eight matches this season.
“He”s 8-0 with six pins,” Fuchs said of his heavyweight star. “He needs 20 more pins to tie Justin Harrison for the school record (82 pins).”
Kelseyville
Kelseyville coach Rob Brown”s team batted .700 during action in Middletown as seven of the 10 wrestlers he entered brought home medals. The Knights also finished ninth as a team.
“I only took 10 wrestlers and seven medaled, so I was pretty happy,” Brown said.
The Knights” medal take featured three firsts — most by any of the Lake County teams at Middletown. Luis Garcia won all seven of his matches during the two days of the tournament to capture the weight title at 120 pounds and Tiko Lando also went 7-0 to win at 138 pounds. Turner added the other first-place medal with his win over Lower Lake”s Brooke in the 182-pound championship match. Turner finished the tournament 5-0.
Adryan Turner placed third at 182 pounds, his only loss coming to teammate Turner. He went 6-1.
Kelseyville added three more medals on the girls” side of the bracket. Twin sisters Korbin and Kylie Marlin, both freshmen, placed second and third, respectively, at 101 pounds, a division won by Clear Lake”s Mariela Soto.
“They had only one practice before the tournament,” Brown said. “They”re both very talented and I”m expecting really good things out of them during their careers at Kelseyville.”
Also for Kelseyville, Navarro finished second at 154 pounds after falling to Middletown”s Quintana-Ocken in the finals.
Clear Lake
The Cardinals secured two first-place medals, one second and one fifth at Middletown.
On the boys” side of the bracket, Julian Lewis won at 220 pounds while Tyler Buchholz was fifth at 160 pounds. Clear Lake was in line for another medal until Jacob Pyorre, already 3-0 in the tournament, had to bow out with an injury. One of Pyorre”s wins came against the eventual 113-pound champion.
Clear Lake”s girls also won two medals. Soto went 6-0 at 101 pounds to claim top honors and Emily Psalmonds went 2-1 to finish second at 111 pounds.
