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LOWER LAKE >> The last time a Lower Lake High School wrestling team won back-to-back-to-back team championships was 40 years ago. Four decades later the Trojans are hoping to equal that accomplishment under current coach Ed Fuchs.
Fuchs and the Trojans get their shot today when the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships take place at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport. Action begins at 10 a.m. and runs through the afternoon. The top three finishers in each weight class advance to the following weekend’s North Coast Section Championships at James Logan High School in Union City. More to the point for the Trojans, the winning team is walking out of the Clear Lake High School gym with no less than a share of the CMC crown for 2017.
Will it be Lower Lake?
“They’re right where we want to be,” Fuchs said of the Willits Wolverines, who went 8-0 during the dual-meet regular season to Lower Lake’s 7-1, that one loss a 37-32 hard-fought setback to Willits on Feb. 1 in Lower Lake.
That head-to-head victory gives the Wolverines a bit of leverage heading into today’s CMC Championships because the Trojans must finish one place ahead of Willits to come away with a piece of the title. If the Wolverines take first to Lower Lake’s second, Willits wins the outright championship.
“The Quest for Three” has been the theme for Lower Lake from the first day of practice. Fuchs, a Lower Lake alum, knows the school’s wrestling tradition well and the Trojans have been working toward this day, the day of the CMC Championships, since practice began late last fall.
“We know our backs are against the wall,” Fuchs said. “That’s why winning that dual was so important.”
Willits and Lower Lake are the only two teams in the CMC with full or nearly full lineups, meaning they can run a wrestler out onto the mat in all 14 of the contested weight divisions.
“Willits has someone in every weight class,” Fuchs said.
Lower Lake had 13 of the 14 weight divisions covered until earlier this week when one of its better wrestlers decided to quit the team.
“We don’t have a 220-pounder now and he was probably a solid third place (at the CMC Meet). That could cost us 13 points,” Fuchs said.
The timing couldn’t have been any worse for the Trojans who need every point they can get today to overtake a talented Willits club. Fuchs said he’ll gladly accept help from other CMC teams today when it comes to beating Willits wrestlers in any of the 14 weight classes.
What will it take for Lower Lake to prevail today? Fuchs said he needs a number of his wrestlers to reach the finals in their respective weight classes, which leaves almost no room for error.
“I think we could have four league champs,” Fuchs said. “And I’m hoping for three or four seconds. We’ll need it.”
Having their backs against the wall is nothing new for the Trojans. Two years ago they entered the CMC Championships at Upper Lake in pretty much the same situation, only it was Fort Bragg that had beaten Lower Lake during the dual-meet season. The Trojans went on to win the tournament and earn a share of the pennant. A year ago at Willits, the Trojans entered the tournament 8-0, just like Willits this year, and prevailed in one of the more competitive and exciting CMC Championships ever held, accumulating 139 team points to 133 for Willits and 130.5 for Fort Bragg.
Fuchs said the Trojans have responded in practice this week like a team that knows exactly the desperate challenge in front of it.
“It’s fueled us all week,” Fuchs said of the close dual-meet loss to Willits. “We wouldn’t have had the practices we’ve had this week without that (loss).”
Fuchs said a handful of his wrestlers neede to step up today much as they did last weekend when the Trojans medaled at the North Coast Section Team Duals even though they were the only small school in a nine-team field.
“This goes down in (school) history if we win today,” Fuchs said of a rare threepeat. “Every one of my kids knows exactly what’s at stake.”
If the Trojans can pull off “The Quest for Three,” they might be looking at a fourth straight title in 2018 because nearly all of their wrestlers return next season.
