CASTRO VALLEY >> Middletown High School’s powerful girls’ wrestling squad tied large school Pittsburg for seventh place in the 33-team Castro Valley Tournament on Saturday in Castro Valley.
“I’m quite happy with our performance,” Middletown coach Brian Hunt said. “Castro Valley is one of the toughest teams in our section and we beat some big schools there.”
The Mustangs brought home five medals, led by third-place finisher Isabella Quintana-Ocken, who went 3-1 at 160 pounds. Teammate Rachel Harvey tied for fifth in the same weight class.
Fourth-place medals went to Kailei Foltmer, who went 2-2 at 131 pounts, and to Alixe Olson, who went 2-2 at 150 pounds.
“She lost to the first- and third-place wrestlers, so she definitely earned that medal,” Hunt said of Olson.
Middletown also won a fifth-place medal at 101 pounds where Angela Egger went 2-2.
Clear Lake sent three wrestlers to the tournament and came away with three medals, including a first by Emily Psalmonds at 111 pounds. Psalmonds, a senior, went 3-0 with two pins and a major decision.
The Cardinals also collected a third-place medal at 111 pounds where Ciera Moreno went 3-1 with three pins.
Hailey Vinson finished sixth at 235 pounds.
In other wrestling action this past weekend:
Fort Bragg Invitational
Clear Lake’s Jacob Pyorre went 3-1 with two pins at 120 pounds to take third in Fort Bragg. His lone loss came to the 120-pound champion from Las Plumas, the tournament’s outstanding lightweight.
Another Cardinal, Isaac Lewis, went 3-1 while finishing third at 160 points. Lewis won all of his matches by pin and his one loss came to the eventual 160-pound champion from River City.
Healdsburg Duals
Lower Lake’s varsity boys’ squad participated in the Healdsburg Duals on Saturday and finished fourth in the bronze bracket. The Trojans beat Albany 48-24 but lost to Sonora 39-18 and Healdsburg 46-21 in pool play. In the bronze bracket, they lost 34-33 to Sonoma and 33-18 to Casa Grande.
Among the standouts for the Trojans were Isaiah Klein, who went 4-0 with one pin at 132 pounds; Dahsaan Booker, who went 4-1 with four pins at 120 pounds; Corey Parker, who went 3-1 with three pins at 138 pounds; Blake Fredrickson, who went 2-1 at 106 pounds; heavyweight Wyatt Hitchcock, who went 1-1, and Peerless Brooke, who went 1-3 at 195 pounds.
“He (Brooke) lost to the third- and fourth-ranked wrestlers in his weight class,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said. “He wrestled what amounted to two semifinal matches at sections.”
It’s the second dual tournament for Lower Lake this season and Fuchs is hoping that the tougher competition will help prepare his team for defense of its Coastal Mountain Conference championship early next year.
“I can tell you that by the end of the day our kids were beat up,” Fuchs said. “We faced some tough competition.”
JV tournament
Lower Lake and Middletown sent wrestlers to a junior varsity tournament on Friday in Healdsburg.
For Lower Lake, Krystal Lockwood came in first at 101 pounds with a 2-0 record that included two pins, and Curtis Grissom, a freshman, went 2-1 and came in second at 126 pounds. The Trojans added another second-place medal at 170 pounds where Ryan Jones went 2-1 with two pins.
Lower Lake picked up a pair of third-place medals as well. Freshman Brandon Law went 3-1 at 113 pounds and freshman Mikelynn Rowe went 3-1 with three pins at 131 pounds.
Simon Tuell, competing at 145 pounds, logged his first high school win, which came by pin.
“I took 16 wrestlers there and won five medals, so that’s better than last year when we won three medals,” Fuchs said.
For Middletown, Edward Backus went 2-1 and finished second at 138 pounds while Cameron Ketchum won three of four matches while placing third at 220 pounds.
Saul Nuno-Padilla and Caden McDowell placed fourth, both with 2-2 records – Nuno-Padilla at 195 pounds and McDowell at 106. It was the first high school tournament of Nuno-Padilla’s career.
“I was quite happy with how they did,” Hunt said of his wrestlers.
