UNION CITY >> Six Lake County wrestlers are still alive for a North Coast Section title after winning their first two matches on Friday during the opening rounds of the NCS Championships at James Logan High School in Union City.
Joining them are four other county wrestlers in the consolation bracket, which means they can still place as high as third Saturday when the tournament wraps up. Top-eight finishers receive medals while top-three finishers advance to the CIF State Championships on March 2-3 in Bakersfield.
Lake County’s six quarterfinalists going into day two of the state tournament are Lower Lake 106-pounder Mario Cuellar, a freshman; Upper Lake 132-pounder Junior Fernandez, a junior; Kelseyville 152-pounder Alex Garcia, a junior; Kelseyville 182-pounder Bryan Carrillo, a junior; Lower Lake 220-pounder Peerliss Brooke, a senior; and Lower Lake 285-pounder Michael Jamsion, a senior. Fernandez, Garcia and Brooke are seeded No. 2 in their respective weight classes.
“We’re pretty excited,” Kelseyville coach Adam Garcia said of his team’s performance. “Our guys were pretty focused coming into today and they went out and executed. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Broken down by school, Lower Lake has five wrestlers advancing to day two, which ties a school record. Kelseyville and Middletown each have two, and Upper Lake has one.
Lower Lake
Along with quarterfinalists Cuellar, Brooke and Jamison, the Trojans’ Tristan Day at 120 pounds and Carlos Avelar at 160 pounds put up quite a fight in the consolation bracket.
Cuellar beat Noah Hamann of Campolindo 11-6 in opening-round action and pinned Jacob Guiducci of Justin-Siena in the round of 16. The two wins boost his season record to 34-6, which breaks the old school record for wins by a freshman (33).
“He’s got a pretty good shot at reaching the semifinals,” Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs said with an eye toward Cuellar’s quarterfinal-round opponent, No. 3 seed Donovan Lucente of Amador.
Brooke wasted absolutely no time winning his first two matches at 220 pounds, both ending in first-round pins.
“It was takedown, pin, takedown, pin,” Fuchs said of Brooke’s victories over Ajay Lozada of Heritage and Ryan Bailey of Amador.
Brooke will face Ethan Lister of California High School in his quarterfinal-round match Saturday.
Jamison, Lower Lake’s heavyweight, opened the tournament by pinning John Albertson of Eureka in the second round. Later in the day he scored a 4-2 decision over Jeremiah Purdy of Las Lomas.
Next up for Jamison in the quarterfinals is Wyatt Word of Liberty.
Day and Avelar started Friday’s action with losses. Day was pinned in the first round by T’che Caver of Washington High School. He answered by pinning three straight opponents in the consolation bracket.
“Tristan’s been in a bit of a slump but he did a great job today,” Fuchs said of Day, who upset No. 8 seed Anthony Barbalinardo in his second consolation match.
Avelar had an even tougher road after being upset 12-7 by Delayno Herrera of James Logan in his outbracket match at 160 pounds. Avelar, a senior, won each of his four consolation matches, three of them by pin and the other by major decision, to stay alive.
“That’s a lot of matches for one day,” Fuchs said.
If Day and Avelar win their first match on Saturday, they’re guaranteed a medal of some sort. If they lose, they’re out of the tournament.
After the Trojans lost eight of their first nine matches during Friday’s action, they won 16 of their next 22 to finish 17-14 overall.
“When you’re over .500 you never complain about that,” Fuchs said.
As a team, the Trojans were in 20th place out of 88 schools. They accumulated more points than any other Coastal Mountain Conference team – Lower Lake and Willits shared the CMC title this season. Willits was in 26th place.
Kelseyville
Garcia scored an early third-round pin over Jacob Hernandez of Concord in his first match, but the son of Kelseyville’s coach needed a lot less time to pin his second-round opponent, Deer Valley’s Frank Tirado, who lasted just 53 seconds.
“He just took care of his business out there,” Garcia said. “He took him down and that was it.”
Garcia draws Nicholas Scrivanich of Cardinal Newman in quarterfinal-round action Saturday.
Carrillo spent even less time on the mat than teammate Garcia. He won by forfeit in the first round when his opponent was a no-show and his second-round match against Brandon Bell of Liberty ended with a 18-2 technical fall.
“Bryan completely dismantled his guy,” Garcia said. Lower Lake’s Fuchs concurred with that assessment. “I was pretty impressed with the way he handled his guy,” Fuchs said. “I think he should have been the MVP heavyweight at our conference tournament (last weekend in Fort Bragg).”
Next up for Carrillo is Garrison Roach of St. Bernard’s in Saturday’s quarterfinals. The two wrestlers have met twice already this season and Roach won each time, but both were close matches.
“We’re feeling pretty good about it,” Garcia said. “Bryan’s confidence level is sky high right now.”
Upper Lake
Fernandez, the highly decorated Upper Lake 126-pounder and section runner-up a year ago, pinned both of his opponents — Eric Srivanich of Cardinal Newman and Seyong Chang of Foothill. He’ll draw Casey Strand of College Park in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
“A solid day of wrestling,” Upper Lake coach Jose Fernandez said of his son’s performance. “We are going into day two feeling great. Tomorrow he will his work cut out for him, but he definitely is up for the fight. He is ready to go.”
Fernandez is 36-5 on the season.
Middletown
No one had a more exciting day on the mat than did Middletown sophomore Jared Pyzer, who lost a 7-5 decision in his outbracket match at 170 pounds. One loss away from being eliminated, Pyzer pinned his first opponent in the consolation bracket, won a 5-3 overtime decision against Levi Nyberg of Fortuna, rallied from three points down in the third period to defeat Mario Martinez of Pittsburg 6-4, and beat Hunter Cantrell of College Park 3-1.
“I won’t say I’m surprised how he did, but I’m happy he did it,” Middletown coach Brian Hunt said of Pyzer’s up-and-down day on the mat.
“The guy he lost to in his first match (Phillip Tran of Livermore), he beat a few weeks earlier at Maria Carrillo (Puma Invitational),” Hunt said. “In his last three matches he was down at some point. He was down 4-1 with about a minute left to the guy from Pittsburg (Martinez).
“He’s done some of his best wrestling late in the season,” Hunt added. “He definitely made up for it after losing that first match.”
Middletown’s other second-day survivor is veteran 220-pounder Cameron Ketchum, who pinned his first opponent before losing by pin to No. 3 seed Cristian Villasenor of De La Salle.
“I was impressed with how quick that kid is,” Hunt said of Villasenor.
Once in the consolation bracket, Ketchum kept his high school career alive by scoring two straight victories, including a pin Major Green of Castro Valley and an 8-5 decision over Francisco Midkiff of Granada.
Pyzer and Ketchum are both in the same predicament going into their first match Saturday, what Hunt said is called the “blood round” because of the all-or-nothing consequences.
“If you win, you’re going to get a medal. If you lose, you’re done,” Hunt added.
