LAKE COUNTY >> Lake County wrestlers returned from the North Coast Section Boys Wrestling Championships in 2016 with three medals, two won by freshmen and the other by a sophomore, but the big prize of reaching the CIF State Championships eluded the county’s best matmen in 2016.
Twelve months later, last year’s three medal winners are all back looking for bigger and better things as the sectional tournament begins its two-day run Friday at James Logan High School in Union City. County wrestlers, of which 22 earned the right to advance to the sectionals, are hoping to up last year’s medal take and to qualify at least one person for the state tournament March 3-4 in Bakersfield.
To reach the coveted goal of a state tournament berth, wrestlers must place third or higher in their weight division at the sectional tournament. To win a medal at sections, you must finish in the top eight, which is no easy task because there are no divisions in the sport of wrestling as there are in other high school sports – small- and large-school athletes are all lumped together based on their weight division.
Each weight class has eight seeded wrestlers going into action on day one of the sectionals. Seeds are awarded based on the quality of competition you’ve faced to this point of the season and of course your won-loss record.
Four county wrestlers enter Friday’s action seeded in their weight classes and in the case of No. 2 seed Junior Fernandez of Upper Lake, the projection is that he will finish at least second at 126 pounds, which means a berth in the state tournament. Also seeded are Lower Lake’s Blake Fredrickson, fourth at 106 pounds; Kelseyville’s Alex Garcia, sixth at 138 pounds; and Lower Lake’s Mike Jamison, sixth at 285 pounds.
Fernandez, Fredrickson and Lower Lake’s Peerliss Brooke, who is unseeded at 195 pounds this year, all won medals a year ago at the sectional tournament. In fact, Fernandez just missed a berth in the state tournament as he dropped a 6-5 decision in the third-place match, settling for a fourth-place medal at 120 pounds. Fredrickson brought home a fifth-place medal at 106 pounds while Brooke finished sixth at 195 pounds.
If any of the county’s wrestlers is on a mission this year, it would have to be Fernandez, who was assessed a penalty point late in his third-place match a year ago that snapped a 5-all tie.
“I’m very excited and very proud of him,” Upper Lake head coach Jose Fernandez said of his son’s many accomplishments in less than two full seasons at the Northshore school. “He has put in more work and is more dedicated than any kid I have ever met. He deserves all that recognition. I am beyond proud.”
Being a seeded wrestler is an honor to be sure, but that seed offers nothing in the way of protection against upsets to lower-seeded or unseeded opponents. Simply put, no one cares about your seeding once the wrestling begins.
“I think he has a very good chance as long as he keeps his head on straight,” Fernandez said of son’s chances of earning a trip to the state meet. “Sometimes when he gets gassed his wrestling suffers. But he has come a long way from a year ago … he’s a completely different wrestler and has a very good chance.”
Fernandez is one of nine Lake County wrestlers who his won weight division at last weekend’s Coastal Mountain Conference Championships in Lakeport. Others were Lower Lake’s Fredrickson, Brooke, Jamison and Hugo Salazar (120 pounds), Upper Lake’s Dante Bassignani (152), Kelseyville’s Garcia and Middletown’s Quentin Crayne (145) and Cameron Ketchum (220).
Wrestlers who sustain two losses on Friday at the sectional tournament are eliminated. Those who get through the first day undefeated or with only one loss advance to Saturday.
