UKIAH >> Middletown High School wrestlers had a productive day on the mats Saturday during the Ukiah Tournament where the Mustangs claimed eight medals between their varsity girls and boys.
Clear Lake wrestlers also did well, winning four varsity medals and one in the junior varsity division.
Middletown
Head coach Brian Hunt couldn’t have been much happier with the four first-place medals won by the five girls he sent to Ukiah High School.
“My girls finished second as a team with only five girls,” Hunt said. “Pittsburg won but had 14 girls.”
Girls at the tournament competed in round-robin brackets. Alixe Olson went 3-0 with three pins at 150 pounds while Kailei Foltmer at 126 pounds and Rachel Harvey at 160 pounds each went 2-0. Foltmer pinned both of her opponents while Harvey won by pin and technical fall.
Middletown’s other first-place medal went to 116-pound Dennae Taylor with a 3-1 record.
“She had a really good showing,” Hunt said of Taylor.
The Ukiah Tournament was the final tuneup for the Middletown girls before the North Coast Section Championships on Friday and Saturday in Albany.
“We’ll take seven girls to sections and I think we’re going to do OK,” Hunt said. “If the girls wrestle the way I know they can, they’ll do fine.”
The top three placers in each weight class at the sectional tournament advance to the CIF State Championships. Middletown has four seeded wrestlers for the sectional tourney, the highest being Olson (No. 2) at 143 pounds. Isabella Quintana-Ocken is the third seed at 150 pounds, Foltmer is No. 4 at 131 pounds, and Kylie Dredge is No. 5 at 121 pounds.
While Middletown’s girls were turning in a solid day’s work on Saturday, the Middletown boys also scored four medals although no firsts.
Wyatt Jones, the fourth seed at 171 pounds, ended up third with a 4-1 record that featured two pins. His only lose came to the No. 1 seed in the semifinals where he fell 8-6 in overtime.
“He had a 5-2 lead late in the third round but just couldn’t hold on,” Hunt said. “It was a really close match.”
Jonathan Wilson added a fourth-place medal at 138 pounds, going 2-2 with two pins; Quentin Crayne finished fifth at 132 pounds, going 3-1 with two pins; and Scott Kelly placed sixth at 152 pounds, going 2-3.
Clear Lake
Led by weight class winners Emily Psalmands and Alicia Ledesma, the Clear Lake Cardinals also brought home a fair share of bling. Psalmonds went 4-0 with three pins at 106 pounds, running her season record to 22-6. Only one of those losses has come to a section opponent as she heads into the NCS Championships in Albany seeded third in her weight class.
Ledesma, who is 13-8 on the season, went 2-0 with two pins. She is the No. 5 seed in her weight class going into the sectional tournament.
Also winning a medal, this one for third place, was Haily Vinson at 235 pounds. She had two pins during the tournament.
In the varsity boys’ bracket, Issac Lewis went 3-2 with two pins to place fourth at 152 pounds, including a 10-9 victory over a Middletown rival who he had never beaten before.
The Cardinals’ final medal came courtesy of Brandon Dickey with a fourth-place finish at 134 pounds in the JV bracket.
