SAN RAFAEL >> On what is becoming a long career checklist full of check marks, Lower Lake High School wrestling coach Ed Fuchs added another one Saturday as the Lower Lake Trojans made the school’s first appearance in the North Coast Section Division II-Redwood Empire Dual Championships at San Rafael High School.
Oh yeah, they also finished fourth to win team medals in a field of large schools, most of them twice Lower Lake’s size.
With team honors reserved for the top four squads in the 10-team field, Lower Lake didn’t disappoint. It beat Fortuna, the No. 4 seed, 48-27 in its first match before losing to eventual champion and No. 1 seed Windsor 77-6 in the semifinals. The Trojans then guaranteed themselves no worse than a top-four finish by beating Redwood High School of Larkspur 43-23. In the third-place match that followed, No. 3 seed Eureka beat Lower Lake 49-27.
“The kids were excited,” Fuchs said. “I don’t think I told them (prior to the tournament) that the fourth-place team received anything, so when I told them (before the Redwood match) that fourth receives (individual) medals, they were pumped up.”
The all-important Lower Lake-Redwood battle in the consolation semifinals essentially came down to the final weight division match with the Trojans holding a 37-32 lead. That 152-pound match featured Lower Lake’s Jeremiah Long, who was wrestling up from his usual weight of 147 pounds.
“I told him, ‘If you win, we win, if you lose, we lose,’” Fuchs said.
Long found himself locked in a 4-4 tie in the second period when he was on his back a portion of the round, according to Fuchs.
Long pulled ahead 6-4 with a reversal and then quickly pinned his Redwood opponent to lock up the Trojans’ team victory.
“He definitely stepped up,” Fuchs said.
Another key weight division battle against Redwood involved Lower Lake 122-pounder Isaiah Klein, who won 5-4.
“That was a big, big win for us,” Fuchs said.
Against Eureka in the third-place match, the Loggers jumped out a 16-0 lead before Lower Lake battled back to 16-12 on back-to-back pins by Weeden Wetmore at 222 pounds and William Isaacs in the heavyweight division. But the Trojans would get no closer.
Forced to forfeit the next two weight divisions, Lower Lake fell behind 28-12 and never recovered although Klein scored a 5-4 double-overtime victory at 122 pounds to make the team score 28-15.
Standouts on the day for the Trojans, according to Fuchs, were Klein and Long, both 2-1; Wetmore and Isaacs, both 3-0; and Dominic Cole and Brendan Maninger, both 2-1.
Fuchs also gave a shoutout to freshman 197-pounder Peerliss Brooke, who battled a Windsor wrestler to a 1-1 tie late into the third period before being pinned. Lower Lake’s only points against the Jaguars came on a forfeit as they went 0-10 in contested weight classes.
The only downside for the Trojans during the day was the loss of 108-pounder Dakota Apodaca to a dislocated elbow in the Fortuna dual. He won’t be available Saturday when the Trojans travel to Upper Lake to compete in the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships, according to Fuchs. Lower Lake needs to win that tournament to secure some share of the CMC title after finishing 8-1 to Fort Bragg’s 9-0 during the CMC regular season.
Lower Lake’s ultimate goal at the NCS Duals was to bring home a team pennant, which are awarded down to third place.
“We put ourselves in a position to wrestle for a pennant, so I can’t be too upset,” Fuchs said. “I think it was nothing but a positive experience for us. I think it made us better as a team going up against bigger schools and tougher opponents.”
