UNION CITY >> Lake County’s four seeded wrestlers at the North Coast Section Boys Wrestling Championships all won their first two matches on Friday to reach today’s quarterfinals and keep alive their quest for a section title and a berth in the CIF State Championships on March 3-4 in Bakersfield.
The top three finishers in each weight class advance to the state tournament while the top eight receive medals. Four other county wrestlers are still alive in the consolation bracket going into today’s final rounds at James Logan High School. They can still finish as high as third place and qualify for state.
Championship bracket
Upper Lake’s Junior Fernandez (33-4), the No. 2 seed at 126 pounds, pinned Noah Quichocho of Mount Diablo in a first-round match before scoring a 15-0 technical fall over Connor Peterson of Petaluma in second-round action. He’ll face Josiah Monjares of College Park in today’s quarterfinals.
Lower Lake’s Blake Fredrick (37-3), the No. 4 seed at 106 pounds, pinned each of his first two opponents. He needed only 81 seconds to beat Ethan de la torre of Granada in a first-round match and just a bit longer to defeat Marco Montanez of Healdsburg in a second-round match, which ended 26 seconds into the the second round. Fredrickson squares off with Riley Hilt of De La Salle in today’s quarterfinals.
Kelseyville’s Alex Garcia (27-9), the sixth seed at 138 pounds, needed only 49 seconds to pin Coben Turk of Livermore in a first-round match. He then punched his ticket to the quarterfinals with an 11-4 decision over Will Dilling of Eureka in a second-round match. Next up for Garcia is Alex McDonald of Stuart Hall in today’s quarterfinals.
Lower Lake’s Michael Jamison (25-7), the sixth seed in the 285-pound division, advanced to the quarterfinals with a first-round pin of Thomas Faville of Drake and a second-round pin of Clayton Murray of Ukiah. Jamison draws Alexis Crepeau of Amador Valley in today’s quarterfinals.
Two other Coastal Mountain Conference wrestlers also reached the quarterfinals — Willits’ Tyler Vesey at 132 pounds and Fort Bragg’s Mike Cavender at 182 pounds.
Consolation bracket
Advancing to the second day of the sectionals with one loss apiece are Upper Lake’s Dante Bassignani and Lower Lake’s Carlos Avelar at 152 pounds and Lower Lake’s Peerlisse Brooke and Kelseyville’s Aaron Teel at 195 pounds.
Bassignani pinned Jonny Forman of Stuart Hall in the second period of their opening-round match but lost to Simon Ermolov of Redwood by 16-1 technical fall in a second-round match. Once in the consolation bracket, Bassignani kept his tournament hopes alive with a 19-1 technical fall over James Parisi of Foothill. He goes up against Nicholas Scrivanich of Cardinal Newman in his first match today..
Avelar dropped a 10-0 major decision to Perez Perez of Windsor in a first-round match but finished Friday with three straight wins in the consolation bracket. He beat Jonathan Eden of Mount Eden 10-4, Diego Barba of St. Patrick/St. Vincent 8-3 and Charles Alejo of Castro Valley by third-round pin. Avelar faces Jesse Espinola of Ukiah in his first match today.
Lower Lake’s Brooke pinned Haled Wahba of American by pin in a first-round match before dropping a 10-4 decision to Cristian Villasenor of De La Salle in a second-round match. Brooke bounced back late Friday to beat Thomas Pak of Amador by 12-2 major decision. He opens today against Oscar Solis of Ygnacio Valley.
Teal had to win a pigtail match to reach the round of 32 and he responded by pinning Jonathan Russell of Eureka. He came back with a third-round pin of Maxwell Martir of St. Patrick/St. Vincent before losing to Zack Stewart of Granada by pin in a second-round match. Once in the consolation bracket, Teal scored a third-round pin over Bjorn Cedergreen of Arcata. He’ll open today against Marko Sanchez of Dougherty Valley.
“We’re exactly where I thought we would be,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said after day one was complete. “The four guys still in the running are the four guys I thought would still be around on day two.”
Apart from securing medals and a state berth or two, Fuchs said the Trojans have several team goals heading into the final day of the sectionals.
“Our goal is to score 70 points, which would be the most we’ve ever scored at sections (the previous school high is 65.5),” Fuchs said. “And of course we want to beat Willits in (team) points.”
Willits defeated Lower Lake in the CMC race this season, ending the Trojans’ two-year reign as conference champions.
Lower Lake has an additional goal of outscoring all the other CMC teams at sections as well. If the Trojans pull it off, it will mark the fourth straight year they have done so, a CMC record.
“It’s never been done before, so we’re still shooting for a bit of history,” Fuchs said.
Upper Lake coach Jose Fernandez said the Cougars’ only two wrestlers at the section meet both had a great day. Not only did Junior Fernandez win both of his matches in convincing fashion, but he shut out his opponents.
“He had no points scored on him at all,” Fernandez said.
Junior faces the No. 7 seed, Monjares of College Park, in his first match today. If he wins, he’ll likely draw the No. 3 seed, Manavajot Singh of James Logan High School, in the semifinals.
Bassignani’s original goal of just reaching day two of the sectional tournament has been met, according to Fernandez, and his new goal is to bring home a medal.
“Dante has come a long way from last year,” Fernandez said. “He’s got a really good chance to medal.”
Lake County qualified 22 wrestlers for the sectional tournament, a field now down to eight.
“The first day is a real tough one,” Fernandez said of the 14 county first-day casualties.
