EUREKA — The third-place pennant is sitting on Brian Hunt’s kitchen table right now and he’ll enjoy the view until it’s relocated to its future home, which is in the rafters or on the walls at the Middletown High School gym.
“This is my ninth year of coaching and it’s the first NCS dual pennant we’ve won,” Middletown High School’s wrestling coach said after watching the Mustangs beat the Kelseyville Knights, 42-39, in a tense third-place match on Saturday during the North Coast Section Division III Team Dual Championship in Eureka. “It’s better than anything we’ve had in quite awhile.”
While this year’s NCS Duals went pretty much true to form as No. 1 seed Willits beat No. 2 seed Healdsburg in the championship match and No. 3 seed Middletown edged out Kelseyville for third place, there was nothing certain about the Mustangs’ victory over their CMC rival in the third-place match, which both teams definitely had plenty of incentive to win.
While the top four placing teams receive medals at the NCS Duals, only the top three teams are accorded the honor of taking home league pennants.
“I probably told my guys 30 times on the way home that we finished third and they said, ‘Yeah, coach we know,’” Hunt said about his ride home from Eureka. “They were tired of me saying it, but it’s a big thing for this team.”
Middletown advanced to the third-place match by winning two of its first three duals. The Mustangs defeated Berean Christian of Walnut Creek 64-14 to get their day started, lost to Healdsburg 55-24 in the semifinals, but defeated Justin-Siena of Napa 54-24 in the consolation semifinals to reach the third-place match against Kelseyville.
There were three critical weight class battles between the two Lake County teams, all of which had a huge bearing on the final outcome. Kelseyville won at 195 pounds where Bryan Carrillo edged Jared Pyzer 3-1, a victory that earned the Knights three team points.
“Obviously we wanted a win there but Jared didn’t lose by more or get pinned, which would have cost us six points,” Hunt said.
In the heavyweight division, Middletown’s James Hernandez moved up from his normal 220-pound slot to take on Kelseyville heavy Tyler Stottsberry.
“He was giving up 70 pounds,” Hunt said of Hernandez, who not only went on to win, but his pin of Stottsberry gave the Mustangs six critical team points.
“That was really big for us,” Hunt said. “We knew we had to win that match. Without James pulling that off we don’t win.”
With Middletown nursing a 36-33 on the scoreboard and only two weight divisions remaining, 152-pounder Caden McDowell fell behind Kelseyville’s Kris Perkin early but went on to pin his opponent and give the Mustangs an insurmountable 42-33 lead. Had McDowell won by a simple decision, the Knights could have tied it during the 160-pound match that Kelseyville’s Alex Garcia went on to win with a pin of Anthony Nudi.
“And the first tiebreaker is the number of matches (weight divisions) won and they won more than we did,” Hunt said.
Other matches
In Middletown’s first dual of the day against Berean Christian, the initial weight division contested saw the Mustangs’ Kylie Dredge pin her male opponent in the first round at 145 pounds, a victory that energized the team, according to Hunt.
“To go up 6-0 in the first match, that was big,” he said.
Other key wins early in that dual were pins by McDowell and Nudi and 152 and 160 pounds, respectively.
McDowell and Nudi also won by pin in their matches against Healdsburg, but the Greyhounds pretty much dominated the rest of the dual.
Against Justin-Siena in the consolation bracket, the Mustangs were powered by pins from McDowell, Nudi and Pyzer.
Middletown, Kelseyville and the other six CMC teams converge on Kelseyville on Saturday for the CMC Championships. The top three wrestlers in each weight class punch their ticket to the North Coast Section Championships the following weekend. Top-three NCS finishers move on to the CIF State Championships.
