MIDDLETOWN >> Lake County wrestlers were scattered across Northern California this past weekend while participating in tournaments at Clovis, Livermore, Napa and Middletown.
Closer to home, the annual Dennis Jensen Invitational at Middletown High School drew boys’ and girls’ wrestlers from throughout Lake County and from 12 high schools in all. Boys participated in weight classes and girls in round-robin pools. Not all of the participating teams sent full compliments but many did, according to Middletown head coach and tournament director Brian Hunt.
“We were down as far as the number of teams, 12 compared to 18 or 19 from past years, but we got a bunch of good wrestling in,” Hunt said of the single-day tournament, which is named after the school’s long-time former head coach.
Hunt had plenty of reason to be pleased with the results as well. Middletown entered 10 boys in the tournament and all of them finished fourth or higher as the Mustangs won their first tournament title since 2007, according to Hunt.
“Some of my assistant coaches were still wrestling the last time we won (a tournament),” he said.
Middletown finished with 189 points to easily outdistance runner-up Kelseyville (149.5) and third-place finisher Willits (133). Lower Lake’s young squad, minus several key wrestlers, posted a fourth-place finish with 117 points, and Arcata rounded out the top five with 109.5. Upper Lake came in eighth (77) and Clear Lake, which sent only two wrestlers, was 12th (22).
“We had six wrestlers in the finals, more than any other school,” Hunt said. “Willits had the next most with four.”
Middletown weight class winners were Jonathan Wilson at 138 pounds and Peter Sullivan at 160. Seconds went to four Mustangs – Caden McDowell at 106 pounds, Quentin Crayne at 126 pounds, Wyatt Jones at 170 pounds, and Cameron Ketchum at 220 pounds.
The Mustangs picked up third-place medals from Noah Williams at 145 pounds and Scott Kelly at 152 pounds, and fourth-place medals from Jake Samson at 132 pounds and Saul Padilla at 182 pounds.
“All 10 of my guys finished in the top four so I’m real happy about that,” said Hunt, who believes the Mustangs are a legitimate contender in the upcoming Coastal Mountain Conference race.
“I think a lot of teams have a shot and we’re one of them,” Hunt said.
For the runner-up Kelseyville Knights, 11 wrestlers finished sixth or better to bring home medals.
Weight class winners were Alex Garcia at 132 pounds and Adrian Thomas at 195. Antonio Velasquez finished second at 138 pounds.
Other Kelseyville medalists were Pedro Garcia, fourth at 106 pounds; Austin Navarro, fourth at 113 pounds; Patrick Mick, fourth at 145 pounds; Natalio Rojas, fourth at 152 pounds; Janvontee Gregoire, fifth at 170 pounds; Brendan Serrano; fifth at 182 pounds; Jason Gentle, sixth at 132 pounds; and Jiovanni Carrillo, sixth in the heavyweight division.
Lower Lake medalists among the boys were weight class runners-up Brandon Law at 113 pounds and Corey Parker at 145 pounds; third-place finishers Adam DeLeon at 138 pounds, Willie Mason at 220 pounds and Michael Jamison in the heavyweight division; Curtis Grisson, fourth at 125 pounds; Nathan Provost, fifth at 195 pounds and Wyatt Hitchcock, fifth in the heavweight division; and Hugo Salazar, sixth at 126 pounds.
In girls’ action, Lower Lake’s Krystal Lockowood went 4-0 with four pins to win the 101-pound round-robin pool, Abebreanna Gonzales went 3-0 to win at 116 pounds, and Mikelynn Rowe finished second at 132 pounds.
Upper Lake’s boys finished with five medals, two of them firsts. Junior Fernandez won the 120-pound class as well as the tournament’s outstanding lightweight award, while Alex Sanchez won at 126 pounds. Nick Warner was fourth in the heavyweight division and fifth-place medals went to Dante Bassignani at 152 pounds and to Alex Serrano at 113 pounds.
In girls’ action, Chelsie Valdez came in third at 137 pounds.
Clear Lake sent only two wrestlers to the tournament but one of them, Isaac Lewis, came away with a second-place medal at 152 pounds. He beat both the second and third seeds en route to the finals where he lost to No. 1 seed Conor Zuppan of Hamilton City by 10-5 decision.
Joining Upper Lake’s Fernandez as outstanding wrestlers of the tournament were Zuppan (middleweight) of Hamilton City and Justin Thom (heavyweight) of Willits.
Mat Classic
While most of Lake County’s girls participated in the Napa Valley Classic (see story on Page A6), a handful of county boys went out of the area. Upper Lake freshman Fernandez went 1-2 on Friday at the 39th annual Doc Buchanan Invitational in Clovis, one of the top high school tournaments in the country, and then hit the road Saturday to compete at Middletown.
In Livermore, four Lower Lake boys took part in the 12th annual Mat Classic at Granada High School. Two of them reached their respective weight division finals and one of them, freshman 106-pounder Blake Fredrickson, came away with the championship.
The No. 2 seed in his weight class, Fredrickson received two straight byes before wrestling for the first time in the quarterfinals. He won all three of his matches, including a 48-second pin in his first match, a second-round pin of the No. 3 seed in the semifinals, and a 37-second pin in the finals against No. 1 seed Evan Santos of American High School, who entered the tournament as the fourth-seeded 106-pounder in the North Coast Section.
“He was definitely in a zone,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said of Fredrickson, a highly decorated wrestler with the Lower Lake Punishers youth club before entering the high school ranks. “He did everything that a wrestler needs to do. It was his first test and he passed with flying colors. And if that was a test, he’s got an exam coming up at the Tim Brown (Invitational in Sacramento this weekend).”
Fredrickson is now 13-1 for the Trojans.
Also bringing back a medal from the tournament was sophomore Peerliss Brooke at 195 pounds. He won his first match by first-round pin, beat the No. 1 seed 12-0 in the quarterfinals, and scored an 11-3 decision over the No. 4 seed in the semifinals. In the championship match, Michael Camacho of San Benito High School pinned Brooke in the first round.
Also for Lower Lake, Dahsaan Booker went 1-2 and Isaiah Klein went 0-2.
Despite sending only four wrestlers to the Mat Classic, Lower Lake accumulated enough points to place 18th out of 40 schools.
