LAKE COUNTY – The 2018 calendar year was a non-stop championship run for Lake County high school sports teams, who collected league titles in the winter, spring and fall capped by a Middletown section crown in football.
It also was a year of individual accomplishments as Upper Lake wrestlers Christina Wilson and Adriana Lopez became the county’s first back-to-back state medalists, Lower Lake quarterback Elijah Hernadez broke the county’s single-season passing record, and Lower Lake’s Aleia Milano became the school’s all-time scoring leader in basketball.
The first three months of the season witnessed league championships by the Kelseyville boys and Clear Lake girls in basketball and Lower Lake in wrestling. Clear Lake’s basketball season extended deep into the NorCal playoffs.
In the spring season, Middletown’s varsity baseball and track teams all collected pennants while Kelseyville golfer Matt Wotherspoon dominated the Coastal Mountain Conference South regular season and reached the second round of the sectional playoffs, just missing a berth in the NorCals.
During the fall season, one that was delayed by major wildland fires twice, Kelseyville captured league titles in varsity volleyball and football while Middletown won league crowns in girls soccer (for the 11th year in a row) and in boys and girls cross country. Freshman Brooklyn Huffman reached the CIF State Cross Country Championships, the first Middletown runner to do so since 2005.
Not to be outdone, the Middletown football team won four straight playoff games to secure the North Coast Section Division V championship. A 28-14 victory over Salesian on Dec. 8 at Alhambra High School in Martinez gave the Mustangs their fourth sectional football crown, all under the leadership of head coach Bill Foltmer, and the first sectional title for any county football team since Middletown last accomplished that feat in 2001.
With a new basketball season starting in the final month of 2018, Payton Conrad became Kelseyville’s all-time leading girls scorer while Upper Lake’s Kenny Hodges became Upper Lake’s all-time leading boys scorer. In wrestling, Upper Lake’s Junior Fernandez won the championship belt at 138 pounds in the 35th annual Lou Bronzan Invitational in Brentwood, only the second person in the tournament’s history to win his weight class four years in a row.
