SACRAMENTO >> Four Lake County high school wrestlers brought home medals from the 10th annual Tim Brown Memorial Invitational on Saturday, capping a busy weekend of wrestling action for the county’s boys and girls teams.
Christina Wilson of Upper Lake was the weekend’s big winner as she pinned all four of her opponents in the first round at 132 pounds to win the Lady Tiger Classic at Tokay High School in Lodi where she was named the tournament’s MVP.
Tim Brown Invitational
While boys teams from the county were competing in several tournaments this past weekend, the headliner was the Tim Brown Memorial Invitational, which drew many of the top wrestlers in the North Coast Section and state.
Upper Lake’s Junior Fernandez beat Jared Horstman of Oak Ridge High School 8-6 in an overtime thriller in the third-place match at 134 pounds. Lower Lake heavyweight Michael Jamison added a fifth-place medal, also winning in overtime while Kelseyville’s Alex Garcia at 154 pounds and Lower Lake’s Peerliss Brooke at 222 pounds came away with seventh-place medals.
Fernandez, the No. 3 seed in his weight class, was 5-1 overall with two technical falls and two pins during the tournament. His lone loss came in the semifinals, a 16-10 decision to eventual 134-pound runner up Lokahi Tonge from Elk Grove.
Jamison, who was the No. 7 seed in the heavyweight division, finished two places higher largely because of a 4-2 overtime win over the No. 2 seed in the quarterfinals, an opponent ranked 18th in the state. Jamison scored a takedown in the overtime to advance to the semifinals where he lost by pin to the No. 3 seed. Later in the fifth-place match he scored another overtime victory, this time 8-5 over Igor Banar of Foothill.
Garcia went 4-2 overall. He reached the quarterfinals before losing by pin to JT Stinson of Del Oro, the state’s seventh-ranked wrestler at 154 pounds. He bounced back with a pin in the consolation round before losing by 3-1 decision in the consolation quarterfinals. He pinned Erick Palmquist of Yuba City in the seventh-place match.
Brooke, who was making his season debut after missing the first part of the season because of academic ineligibility, matched his No. 7 seeding with the seventh-place finish. He went 4-2 with three pins and his only two losses were to the second and fifth seeds, both from Calaveras High School. He beat Danile McElwain 3-0 in the seventh-place match.
Kelseyville 222-pounder Javante Gregoire just missed out on a medal but finished the tournament 2-2. Lower Lake’s Mario Cuellar at 106 pounds and Adam Deleon at 140 pounds also went 2-2 while the Trojans’ Tristan Day (120) and Carlos Avelar (160) finished 1-2.
“It was a good feeling leaving that building,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said. “We had four guys (out of seven) reach the second day and two bring home medals. Six of the seven won at least one match.
“The reason you go to these big tournaments is to learn and we learned a lot.”
Former Lower Lake High School standout Blake Fredrickson, now wrestling for Windsor, won the 113-pound division.
Michael Kroppmann Invitational
At Lakeport, Kelseyville’s girls turned in a strong showing at the annual Michael Kroppmann Invitation led by 189-pound winner Jasmin Clarke and 126-pound winner Bailey Huggins. All three of Clarke’s wins were by pin. Huggins received a first-round bye before winning by 23-6 technical fall in the semifinals and by pin in the finals.
Also for Kelseyville, Kylie Martin went 3-1 to finish third at 106 pounds, all three of her victories by pin. Elisa Jaquez added a third-place finish at 126 pounds, also with a 3-1 record that included two pins. Fifth-place finishes went to Korbyn Marlin at 106 pounds and to Melanie Guerrero-Rodriguez at 143 pounds.
Middletown sent a small number of girls and boys to the Kroppman Invitational and came away with a handful of medals. Kylie Dredge, competing in her first tournament of the year, won her weight class with a 3-0 record that featured three pins, and Angela Egger added a second-place medal after going 2-1.
For Middletown’s boys, Isaac Rascon finished second at 107 pounds, Joziah Pyzer came in fourth at 121 pounds, and Evan Dodd finished fourth at 161 pounds.
Sutter Invitational
Middletown sent 222-pounder Cameron Ketchum and 172-pounder Jerad Pyzer to the Sutter Lions Invitational. Ketchum finished fifth with a 2-2 record while Pyzer fell just short of the medal round while also going 2-2.
“The Sutter Tournament is a very tough tournament and I’m happy with our performance there,” Middletown coach Brian Hunt said. “We were hoping to bring a lot more wrestlers to both of these tournaments (Sutter and Michael Kroppmann), but due to multiple illnesses, we only had a small number of kids compete. The kids who did compete all wrestled well and pulled some quality wins out of these tournaments.”
