FORT BRAGG >> The Middletown Mustangs came away with a split in their Coastal Mountain Conference wrestling tri-meet against the Willits Wolverines and Fort Bragg Timberwolves on Wednesday night in Fort Bragg.
Middletown defeated Fort Bragg 33-16 in the first dual of the night before dropping a 51-15 decision to defending CMC champion Willits. Fort Bragg and Willits went head to head in the final dual (the score wasn’t available).
“We expected to beat Fort Bragg,” Middletown coach Brian Hunt said of the Mustangs’ victory over the Timberwolves, a match where only five out of a possible 14 weight classes were contested. “I honestly wasn’t expecting us to beat Willits. We’re too sick, too banged up right now and too young. I’ve got three seniors out there and the rest are freshman and sophomores, but those young guys are getting some valuable match time.”
Barring something unforeseen, Hunt said the race for this-year’s CMC title is once again between Willits and Lower Lake, which won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016 before finishing second to the Wolverines last season.
“Willits has got a solid team,” Hunt said. “They don’t have too many kids out there wrestling who aren’t studs. I haven’t seen Lower Lake yet, but it’s going to come down to Willits and Lower Lake.”
Fort Bragg
In the five classes where both Middletown and Fort Bragg sent wrestlers out onto the mat, the Mustangs won two – at 170 pounds where Jared Pyzer defeated Ian Sutton 4-2, and in the heavyweight division where Cameron Ketchum pinned Alex Barajas in the first round.
“I was impressed with how Pyzer wrestled that match,” Hunt said of his 170-pounder. “Ian Sutton is a quality wrestler. On paper that’s a match where not too many people are going to give him (Pyzer) a chance.”
In the other three contested weight divisions, Middletown’s Filemon Sanchez lost a 14-5 major decision at 120 pounds, Ian Cadwallader was pinned at 132 pounds, and James Fernandez dropped a 12-0 major decision at 195 pounds.
Willits
Middletown came away with three weight class wins versus the powerful Wolverines. The most exciting of the three was Ketchum’s 5-3 overtime win in the heavyweight division. Angela Egger moved up two weight classes to win by pin at 120 pounds, and veteran Quentin Crayne won by third-round pin at 145 pounds.
Egger was matched against a Willits junior varsity boy who also was wrestling up two weight divisions.
“She worked the kid pretty good,” Hunt said.
Middletown is now 2-1 in the CMC standings.
Members of the Mustangs’ varsity boys squad head to the Puma Classic on Saturday at Maria Carrillo High School in Santa Rosa while the team’s girls and JV boys head to the Willits Tournament. Middletown joins Kelseyville next Wednesday in a CMC tri-meet at Lower Lake.
