UNION CITY >> Junior just moved up into the big leagues.
Upper Lake High School’s Junior Fernandez, only a sophomore, is headed to the CIF State Wrestling Championships after finishing second in the 126-pound division on Saturday during the North Coast Section Championships in Union City.
Fernandez was one of four sectional medal winners from Lake County, joining teammate Dante Bassignani (eighth at 152 pounds) and Lower Lake’s Blake Fredrickson (fifth at 106 pounds) and Michael Jamison (sixth at 285 pounds).
Fernandez
Along the way to claiming the second-place medal and a trip to Bakersfield this weekend for the state tournament, Fernandez scored a heart-pounding 6-4 overtime victory over Manvjot Singh of tournament host James Logan High School to gain the finals against No. 1 seed Kyle Parco of San Ramon High School. In a battle of the top two seeds, both of them sophomores, Parco prevailed 12-5.
“That overtime match was just incredible,” Upper Lake head coach Jose Fernandez said of his son’s come-from-behind victory, which included scoring a two-point reversal in the final seconds of regulation to force a 4-4 tie and overtime.
“The place was going crazy,” Fernandez said of a full house at James Logan High School. “When the overtime started Junior got a takedown right away to win it.”
Against Parco in the championship match, Fernandez said a slow start by Junior cost him any chance of a win.
“He came on strong toward the middle of the match and at the end, but he was just behind by too many points by then to catch up,” Fernandez said.
Parco and Fernandez had met only once before Saturday and that was at a freestyle state tournament last year. Parco won that initial encounter as well.
Parco is 42-4 on the season while Fernandez is 35-5. They could meet up again in Bakersfield if things work out right.
In his first match on Saturday Fernandez fell behind Josiah Monjares of College Park 5-0 before roaring back to win 9-5.
“Junior just stayed aggressive after he fell behind and the kid didn’t score another point against him,” Fernandez said.
“If he wrestles at the top of his game, the way he is capable of wrestling, he can beat anybody in the state or the country,” Fernandez said of his son. “It’s all about consistency and that’s why you have to work so hard. It takes a while to find it. No one works harder than he does.”
Fredrickson
Also a sophomore, Lower Lake’s Fredrickson was the No. 4 seed entering the state tournament and he won each of his first two matches on Friday before losing to No. 5 seed Riley Hilt of De La Salle by 7-4 decision in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
“He made one mistake that cost him five points,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said.
That loss dropped him into the consolation bracket where he needed to go undefeated to finish third and earn a state berth. Fredrickson responded with two straight victories by pin before losing in the consolation semifinals to Guy Petruske of College Park by 21-10 decision.
In the fifth-place match followed Fredrickson defeated Cole Gregerson of Liberty by 17-0 technical fall.
“He was definitely disappointed in where he finished,” Fuchs said. “His outcome goal is way up there but sometimes when you set challenging goals it’s tough to reach them. The kid works his butt off, so it’s not a matter of that. Sometimes other kids wrestle their butts off too.”
Jamison
Jamison opened Saturday with a third-round pin of Alexa Crepeau of Amador Valley in the quarterfinals but he lost to No. 1 seed and eventual section champion Garrett McAlexander of Del Norte in the semifinals by 9-1 major decision.
Jamison needed a win in his next bout to wrestle for third place but instead lost to Andy Delira of Clatyon Valley by 4-2 overtime decision.
“He beat that same kid in overtime at the Lou Bronzan Tournament (in December),” Fuchs said.
In the battle for fifth place, Jamison and Crepeau met for a second time Saturday and Crepeau won the rematch, 5-3.
Bassignani
Starting Saturday in the consolation bracket after going 2-1 on Friday, Bassignani won each of his first two matches – by 6-0 decision and second-round pin – to get into medal contention. He lost his next match by second-round pin to fall into the eighth-place match where he was pinned in the first round.
“I was as proud of Dante as I was of Junior,” Fernandez said. “He met and beat every goal he set for himself this season. He wanted to reach the league tournament and he finished first. He wanted to reach the second day of sections and he comes away with a medal. He blew me away with how well he wrestled.”
Final day
Four other county wrestlers – Lower Lake’s Carlos Avelar (152) and Peerliss Brooke (195) and Kelseyville’s Alex Garcia (138) and Aaron Teel (195) also made it to the second day of the sectional tournament. Of the four, only Brooke won a match on Saturday. He prevailed 9-3 in his first match of the day and needed one more victory to guarantee himself some sort of medal but lost 11-3.
