VISALIA >> Upper Lake High School sophomore Christina Wilson was the only one of seven Lake County wrestlers to make it through Friday’s preliminary rounds at the CIF State Girls’ Wrestling Championships in Visalia.
The North Coast Section champion at 121 pounds went 1-1 in her first two matches of the double-elimination tournament and will open today against Vanessa Contreras of Yucca Valley High School in the consolation bracket. Wilson can still finish as high as third. Medals are awarded down to six places.
Wilson and Kelseyville’s Jasmin Clarke, a freshman, were the only two county wrestlers to win a match on Friday. Knocked out of the competition after losing each of their first two matches were 106-pounders Emily Psalmonds of Clear Lake and Adriana Lopez of Upper Lake; 131-pounder Kailei Foltmer of Middletown; 143-pounder Alixe Olson of Middletown; and 150-pounder Isabella Quintana-Ocken of Middletown. Clarke, competing at 189 pounds, finished 1-2.
Wilson lost 6-0 in her first match to Deliliah Houck of North Monterey County High School, who also ended up in the consolation bracket by the end of Friday’s action, setting up a possible rematch between the two. Later in the day Wilson regrouped and pinned Ashley Fernando of Chula Vista to keep her medal hopes alive.
Clarke scored a 3-2 victory over Annjoeli Olaeta of Monterey High School in the championship bracket before losing each of her next two matches, both times on pins. She was the only county wrestler to win her first match.
“She was up 1-0 and taking it to her,” Kelseyville coach Rob Brown said of Clarke’s final match against Jessica Fernandez of Pacifica High School of the Southern Section. “It looked like she tripped on her own feet and fell on her back,” Brown said of the events leading up to Clarke’s tournament-ending loss.
Wilson, who is making her second straight appearance at the state tournament, is trying to become the first Upper Lake wrestler to win a state medal. Last weekend she became the school’s first wrestler to win a North Coast Section championship.
Middletown coach Brian Hunt, who had high opens of getting at least one of his wrestlers into the second day of the two-day tournament, said it was simply a case of his three girls – Foltmer, Olson and Quintana-Ocken – running into some pretty formidable opposition.
“They all wrestled well, but they ran into some studs,” Hunt said. “There are not any bad wrestlers down there and they are all there for a reason.”
Foltmer, like Upper Lake, was making her second trip to the state tournament.
