BRENTWOOD >> Upper Lake High School freshman 120-pounder Junior Fernandez did something no other Cougar wrestler has done before last week when he won the championship belt in his weight division during the annual Lou Bronzan Invitational at Liberty High School in Brentwood.
The Lou Bronzan, one of the top preseason tournaments in the North Coast Section for boys, is held at the same time as one of the section’s top preseason tournaments for girls, the Brittany David Invitational, which also featured a Lake County wrestler among its weight class champions, 131-pounder Kailei Foltmer, a senior at Middletown High School.
Both the Lou Bronzan and Brittany David are contested at the same time on eight mats split between two gyms at Liberty High School. Fernandez and Foltmer were among seven Lake County medalists. Weight division runners-up at the Brittany David included Middletown’s Isabella Quintana-Ocken at 151 pounds, Upper Lake’s Adriana Lopez at 106 pounds, and Upper Lake’s Angel Stith at 101 pounds.
Fourth-place medals went to Middletown 182-pounder Wyatt Jones in the Lou Bronzan and to Upper Lake’ 116-pounder Christina Wilson at the Brittany David.
“I’m quite happy with how we did,” Middletown coach Brian Hunt said of the medals won by Foltmer, Quintana-Ocken and Jones.
Upper Lake assistant wrestling coach Ron Campos, who traveled with the Cougars to Liberty High School, said Fernandez “dominated the competition” while going 4-0 during the Lou Bronzan. He earned the tournament’s most valuable lightweight award and had his photo featured on the cover of thecaliforniawrestler.com magazine after becoming the first Upper Lake wrestler to win a weight title at that tournament in the school’s history.
“We’re pretty proud of him,” Campos said of Fernandez, who is quickly becoming a known quantity in the high school ranks after a stellar career with Upper Lake’s youth club.
Upper Lake
Fernandez, the No. 6 seed in the 120-pound division at Lou Bronzan, beat the top three seeds en route to winning the championship belt. After a first-round bye, he defeated unseeded Pradeep Arumugam of Dublin 17-2 in the second round.
On the second day of the tournament, Fernandez won his only close match, edging No. 2 seed Teague Dillbeck of Granite Bay 7-6 in the quarterfinals. He pinned No. 3 seed Sergio Napeles of tournament host Liberty High School in the second round of the semifinals, then scored a 13-2 major decision over No. 1 seed Jacob Ellefson of Montasano High School in Washington state.
“He is the Washington state champion,” Campos said of Ellefson.
Of the six Upper Lake boys entered in the Lou Bronzan, Fernandez was the only one to medal. Zack Sneathen at 138 pounds was well on his way with victories in each of his first two matches before losing 6-4 in the third round, a match during which he sustained a shoulder injury that ended his tournament run. Dante Bassignani went 2-2 at 152 pounds and Alex Sanchez went 1-2 at 126 pounds.
Meanwhile at the Brittany David Invitational, Stith won each of her first three matches by pin at 101 pounds before losing 17-4 in the finals. Lopez went 1-1 at 106 pounds, winning by pin in the semifinals and losing by pin in finals.
Wilson won her first two matches by pin in a combined 54 seconds, lost by pin, then rebounded with her third pin of the tournament before losing 6-1 in the third-place match.
Middletown
Foltmer faced four opponents and pinned them all, according to Hunt, who said his senior’s final match was against an opponent who had beaten her only a few days earlier at the Castro Valley Tournament.
“So that was pretty satisfying for Kailei,” Hunt said.
Foltmer’s championship match was briefly halted for a cut she sustained above her left eye.
“She was bleeding and my assistant coach was able to stop it and tape it (the cut) up,” Hunt said.
After the blood had been cleaned off the mat, action resumed and Foltmer went on to pin her opponent and claim the championship belt awarded to all weight division winners. She also had to visit the hospital and get seven stitches to properly close the cut.
“I didn’t see it happen so I’m not actually sure what happened,” Hunt said of the injury. “All I know is it was bleeding pretty good and we were able to stop it long enough for her to go on and win. She’s one tough girl.”
It was a nice bounceback effort for Foltmer, according to Hunt.
“She was a little flat at her last tournament (Castro Valley) but she came out on fire here,” Hunt said. “She really wrestled well.”
Quintana-Ocken finished exactly as seeded (second) at 151 pounds.
“She was feeling a little bit down about it but I told her she just finished second at one of the top tournaments in the NCS and there’s nothing bad about that,” he said.
Meanwhile at the Lou Bronzan, Jones won each of his first three matches before losing a semifinal-round overtime heartbreaker.
“Wyatt pushed the action and was the more aggressive wrestler,” Hunt said. “The other guy (eventual runner-up Joseph Salt of Benicia High School) was trying to get the match into overtime at the end of regulation. He wasn’t doing much and then he got lucky in overtime.”
Jones, the No. 3 seed at 182 pounds, lost to Jordan Jensen of Granite Bay High School in the third-place match.
“Fourth at one of the top tournaments in the NCS is still pretty good,” Hunt said. “He wrestled really well against some tough competition.”
Middletown High School hosts the one-day Dennis Jensen Invitational on Jan. 9. The field will be between 12-15 teams, including all the Lake County schools.
