UKIAH >> There weren’t a lot of matches on Friday during the opening rounds of the North Coast Section Girls’ Wrestling Championships at Ukiah High School, but several Lake County wrestlers did reach the quarterfinals.
Emily Psalmonds of Clear Lake High School pinned Sophie Spencer of Rancho Cotate in a first-round match at 106 pounds while Middletown’s Kailei Foltmer, who had a first-round bye at 131 pounds, pinned Sandra Gates of University High School (San Francisco) in the second round. Both wrestlers will open today with quarterfinal-round matches. Foltmer draws Gabby Jones, the No. 5 seed from Newark Memorial, while Psalmonds gets Joy Pihana of Castro Valley..
Psalmonds’ victory was her 20th of the season (20-7). Foltmer improved to 24-9 with her second-round victory. Both athletes are juniors.
In the 101-pound division where five county wrestlers took to the mats, Upper Lake sophomore Angel Stith (19-4) needed only 48 seconds to pin Angela Egger of Midldetown in a second-round match, putting Stith into today’s quarterfinals against Nguyet Tran of James Logan.
Also at 101 pounds, Lower Lake’s Krystal Lockwood lost a wild 11-10 decision to Jaden Estrella of Windsor in a first-round match. In the consolation bracket, Lockwood came right back to beat Korbyn Marlin of Kelseyville on a second-round pin. Lockwood draws Middletown’s Egger in her first match today. The loser is eliminated from the tournament while the winner advances in the consolation bracket.
“If she wins that match, she’ll wrestle the No. 6 seed,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said. “If she can win that match, she’ll be in the medal round.”
The top eight wrestlers in each weight class win medals while the top three advance to the CIF State Championships.
Also reaching the quarterfinals on Friday was Upper Lake’s Christina Wilson, who pinned Frida Cormona of Petaluma in the second round at 121 pounds.
At 106 pounds, Lower Lake’s Rachele Wagner lost on a second-round pin in her first match less than 24 hours after sustaining a knee injury during a Thursday practice.
“She showed up to the weigh-in on crutches and weighed in on crutches,” Fuchs said. “We taped her up the best we could. She wanted to wrestle.”
Wagner draws Ilse Lopez of Pittsburgh today in the consolation bracket where Kelseyville’s Kylie Martin is also still alive after a first-round loss.
“I was proud of her. Win or lose she showed courage to step out on the mat,” Fuchs said. “She’s in high spirits.”
Wagner needs wins in each of her first two consolation matches today to reach the medal round.
At 126 pounds, Upper Lake’s Chelsie Valdez beat Sorayan Handy of Pittsburg by second-pound pin in first-round action before losing to Naomi Narvaez by pin in a second-round match. Valdez opens today in the consolation bracket against Kiana Camacho of American High School.
Even county wrestlers who didn’t compete in a single match on Friday reached the quarterfinals because of low numbers in their weight divisions or because of no-shows in their brackets. Such was the case at 150 pound where Isabella Quintana-Ocken’s opponent didn’t show up, forcing tournament officials to reconfigure seeding and the 150-pound bracket. The Middletown junior will put her 20-6 season record on the line today against another county wrestler, Kelseyville senior Christina Navarro (20-7), in the quarterfinals. Navarro also had a first-round bye into the quarterfinals.
At 137 pounds, Upper Lake’s Daniela Estrada had a first-round bye and will take on Laylani Allen of Castro Valley in today’s quarterfinals.
