LIVERMORE — Middletown High School’s Xander Romero battled through some stiff competition Saturday to bring home a second-place medal from the Granada Tournament in Livermore.
The 113-pounder went 4-1 on the day, losing his final match by decision to Jaden Ramos of Redwood High School, the top-ranked 113-pounder in the North Coast Section. Romero is No. 4.
“Xander had a great day, a really long day,” Middletown head coach Brian Hunt said of his wrestler’s five matches.
Middletown was in line for another high medal at 195 pounds until Jared Pyzer, the section’s third-ranked wrestler, sustained an injury early on in his semifinals match and had to injury default, leaving him in sixth place.
“He’s out until further notice,” Hunt said when asked about Pyzer’s injury.
In other action involving Middletown wrestlers, Jayde Miles went 2-2 at 116 pounds in the Napa Valley Classic. She needed a win in her final match on Friday to reach day two of the tournament, but lost in a tough overtime battle.
“The Napa girls tournament is the toughest girls tournament in the state, so going 2-2 is nothing to complain about,” Hunt said.
The majority of Middletown’s squad participated in the eighth annual Michael Kroppmann Memorial Tournament on Saturday in Lakeport (see related story).
Middletown opens its Coastal Mountain Conference schedule Wednesday with a home tri-meet against Cloverdale and Fort Bragg at 5:30 p.m. The Mustangs compete in the Eureka Tournament on Saturday.
Lower Lake
While the majority of Lower Lake’s wrestling team took part in the eighth annual Michael Kroppmann Memorial Tournament on Saturday in Lakeport where the Trojans won the boys team title (see related story), a handful of the team’s top wrestlers traveled to Sacramento to participate in the ultra-competitive Tim Brown Invitational, one of the toughest tournaments in the state.
Of those Trojans taking part, Gilbert Orozco and Pedro Garrido had the best showings although neither wrestler reached the second day of the competition.
Orozco went 2-2 at 147 pounds and Garrido split his first two matches at 134 pounds but was forced to injury default in his second match because of a bloody eye.
Garrido opened the tournament in impressive fashion, beating the No. 13 seed. Paired against the No. 4 seed in his second match, he was just 15 seconds into the first round when the injured occurred.
“They both shot at the same time,” Lower Lake head coach Ed Fuchs said of the two wrestlers.
The head-to-head contact created a gash above one of Garrido’s eyes.
While the Trojans were able to stop the bleeding in the allotted five minutes during an injury timeout, Fuchs said he decided to stop the match right there.
“If we had gone on, it would have just started bleeding again, so we decided to pull him out to be safe,” Fuchs said.
“He looked really good in beating the 13th seed,” Fuchs said.
Lower Lake opens its Coastal Mountain Conference schedule Wednesday during a tri-meet in Willits. Clear Lake is also participating. The outcome of the Lower Lake-Willits dual will leave the winner in control of the CMC race. Action begins at 5:30 p.m.
