PITTSBURG — Middletown High School 195-pounder Jared Pyzer brought home a second-place medal from the Pittsburg Invitational on Saturday at Pittsburg High School.
Middletown sent six wrestlers to the tournament and three claimed medals with top-four finishes in their respective weight divisions, topped by Pyzer’s second.
“He lost to a very tough opponent from the Sac-Joaquin Section in the finals,” Middletown head coach Brian Hunt said of Pyzer, who was late in joining the team because of the Mustangs’ deep run in the North Coast Section Division V football playoffs.
Other Middletown medal winners were Anthony Nudi, who was third at 160 pounds, and James Hernandez, who was fourth at 220 pounds.
“He’s a new student at Middletown who has been wrestling for a few years and is going to make a strong addition to our team,” Hunt said of Nudi.
Hernandez, unseeded at 220 pounds, beat the No. 3 seed in his first match and later beat the No. 4 seed to reach the medal round.
“He looked very solid and lost a close match to finish fourth,” Hunt said.
Blake Schuster just missed out on a medal at 145 pounds where he lost an overtime match to a returning state qualifier, a loss that knocked him out of the tournament.
Jared Anthony and James and Blake were wrestling in their first tournament of the season because of Middletown’s long football run.
“It was great having these kids back on the mat,” Hunt said.
Middletown’s boys, girls and junior varsity boys are back in action Frirday and Saturday during the Dennis Jensen Invitational at Middletown High School. Up to 19 schools are expected to compete, including Ukiah, Sutter and Justin-Siena, and all of the Coastal Mountain Conference schools are expected to send at least partial squads to the two-day competition. The tournament honors the former longtime Middletown wrestling coach.
