NAPA >> Christina Wilson of Upper Lake battled through six matches covering two days to place second in the 121-pound division at the prestigious 18th annual Napa Valley Classic girls’ wrestling tournament held Friday and Saturday at Vintage High School in Napa.
The Napa Valley Classic is one of the largest girls’ wrestling tournaments in the country and six Lake County girls — three from Upper Lake, two from Clear Lake and one from Kelseyville — were successful in reaching the second day of the double-elimination competition, which is an accomplishment all by itself.
Wilson, a third-place medalist at last year’s North Coast Section Championships who just missed out on a medal at the state tournament, finished 5-1 with five pins.
Two of Wilson’s teammates — 101-pounder Angel Stith and 106-pound Adriana Lopez — also survived the first day of competition, Stith going 4-1 with four pins and Lopez posting a 2-1 mark with two pins. On Saturday, Stith won her first match by pin before taking her second loss. Lopez also won her first match by pin before bowing out of the tournament with her second loss.
For the Clear Lake Cardinals, Emily Psalmonds at 111 pounds and Ciera Moreno at 137 pound survived the first-day cut, Psalmonds going 4-1 and Moreno 3-1. Both wrestlers suffered their second loss early Saturday.
For Kelseyville, Jasmin Clark split her two matches at 189 pounds on Friday before losing her first match Saturday.
“She was ahead in both of the matches she lost, she just made a couple of little mistakes,” Kelseyville coach Rob Brown said of the freshman Clark, who was participating in her first high school tournament.
While they didn’t make it to the second day of the tournament, Kelseyville 101-pounders Kylie and Korbin Marlin and 116-pounder Bri Thomas, all 0-2 on Friday, did qualify for the “Hard Luck” competition held Saturday. The trio of Knights didn’t drop a single match, each going 3-0.
“They couldn’t do anything wrong and wrestled so good,” Brown said.
