LOWER LAKE >> Lake County wrestlers, both boys and girls, experienced plenty of success on the mats Saturday during the eight-team South Lake Scuffle tournament in Lower Lake, but no county team did better than the Middletown Mustangs.
Middletown finished second to Durham in the team standings with host Lower Lake in third place, Upper Lake fourth, Willits fifth, Kelseyville sixth, Albany seventh, and Point Arena eighth.
“Middletown surprised me … they were only 17½ points behind Durham,” Lower Lake coach and tournament director Ed Fuchs said. “They’ve got everybody back this year. I was impressed.”
Middletown coach Brian Hunt liked what he witnessed, too.
“I didn’t have any seniors last year so my team leaders from a year ago are my team leaders again this year,” said Hunt, who became head coach at the school when his current seniors were freshmen. “We are pretty loaded with upper classmen. I’m pretty excited about this year.”
On the boys’ side of the bracket, Middletown’s Noah Williams (145 pounds), Scott Kelly (160) and Wyatt Jones (195) won their weight divisions. Also reaching the finals but settling for second-place medals were Caden McDowell (113) and Quentin Crayne (126) while Jon Wilson (138) and Cameron Ketchum (220) came in third.
Peter Sullivan won a fourth-place medal at 170 pounds and Jake Samson was fifth at 132 pounds.
Middletown did pretty well on the girls’ side of the bracket as well, including firsts by Kailei Foltmer at 131-137 and Isabella Quintana Ocken at 151-189.
Foltmer also won one of three most valuable awards given to the tournament’s outstanding female wrestlers. The others went to Upper Lake’s Angel Stith, the 101-106 champion, and to Christina Wilson, the 121-126 champion. Quintana-Ocken needed only 28 seconds to win her only two matches by pin and claim first in the 151-189 division.
Lower Lake
For the third-place Lower Lake team, weight division winners were Blake Fredrickson at 106 pounds and Michael Jamison, the fourth seed at 275 pounds.
“He picked off a Willits kid in the semifinals and then beat the No. 3 seed from Kelseyville in the finals,” Fuchs said of Jamison. “He did a nice job.”
Other highlights for the Trojans were Peerliss Brooke’s second-place finish to Middletown’s Jones in the 195-pounds finals and Willie Mason’s second-place medal at 220 pounds.
Lower Lake’s girls picked up a handful of medals as well, including Krystal Lockwood, who lost to Upper Lake’s Stith in the 101-106 finals, and Abebreanna Gonzales, who was second to Upper Lake’s Adriana Lopez at 111-116 pounds.
Upper Lake
The Upper Lake Cougars won seven weight classes — four in the girls’ bracket and three more in the boys’ bracket.
For the girls, Chelsie Valdez won at 143-150 pounds, beating teammate Mercedes De Los Santos in the championship match. Between Valdez, Stith, Wilson and Lopez, the Cougars won four of the six girls’ weight classes.
For the boys, Junior Fernandez dominated the field at 120 pounds and also won one of the three MVP awards in the boys’ bracket. Nick Warner claimed the 220-pound title.
The toughest weight division in the tournament, at 138 pounds, saw Upper Lake’s Zach Sneathen lose a close decision to Tokuma Okamoto of Albany High School.
“Okamoto beat him last year but this one was much closer,” Fuchs said. “Sneathen was really bringing it to him.”
Upper Lake’s other seconds went to Dante Bassignani and Dani Estrada. JB Ankeny brought home a third-place medal.
Kelseyville
Kelseyville didn’t have a complete squad at the tournament — four of its top wrestlers traveled to the Green and Gold Tournament in Novato — but the Knights still finished sixth overall. Mike Beverlin and Jovanny Carrillo secured second-place medals and Austin Navarro came in third.
The Knights also won three third-place medals in the girls’ bracket thanks to Corbin Marlin, Brianna Thomas and Vanessa Gonzalez.
