UKIAH — Lower Lake High School 154-pounder Mario Cuellar and Upper Lake High School 220-pounder Bradley Sneathen did what no other Lake County varsity boys could do Saturday at the Redwood Empire Classic wrestling tournament, win their weight classes.
Cuellar helped an understrength Lower Lake squad place sixth in the team standings while going 3-0 at 154 pounds as the division’s No. 1 seed. He beat Willits’ Gabe McGinnis 9-2 in the finals, the second meeting this season between the two rivals. Cuellar earlier defeated McGinnis 6-3 in a Coastal Mountain Conference dual match.
McGinnis scored his only two points against Cuellar with a reversal in the third period.
“And Mario reversed him right back,” Lower Lake head coach Ed Fuchs said.
While Lower Lake had hoped to place in the top three of the competitive tournament, according to Fuchs, the Trojans’ veteran coach held back a handful of wrestlers because of their in-class school commitments.
“We wanted top three, but at the last minute I had to keep some kids home for missing assignments,” said Fuchs, who is a stickler for making sure his wrestlers maintain strong grades. “I think we should be OK for NCS Duals this weekend.”
Even without a full contingent of wrestlers, the Trojans, currently undefeated in the CMC regular-season standings, put up quite a fight.
Besides Cuellar, Tristan Day bettered his No. 3 seed at 128 pounds by finishing second, his only loss coming by first-round pin to his No. 1-seeded West Valley opponent in the finals. Day upset the No. 2 seed from Ukiah in the semifinals with a thrilling 10-9 victory.
Lower Lake won three other medals – No. 3 Bryan Gudino placed fourth at 108 pounds, dropping a 6-4 decision in the third-place match; Quentin Vilmenay came in fourth at 115 pounds as the No. 5 seed, upsetting the No. 4 seed from Del Norte along the way; and unseeded Jesse Castellanos placed seventh at 162 pounds.
Sutter won the team title followed by Ukiah, West Valley, Del Norte, Fortuna and Lower Lake.
The Trojans close out their CMC season Wednesday on the road against Middletown and Kelseyville in Kelseyville. Action begins at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Trojans hit the road again, this time to compete in the North Coast Section Division II Team Duals at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park. A top-three finish will earn Lower Lake a pennant, which would be a school first.
“The top three get pennants, the top four medals,” Fuchs said. “Our goal is to get a pennant for the first time in school history. I believe we have the team that can do it.”
Upper Lake
Upper Lake’s Sneathen was unseeded in the 220-pound weight class at Ukiah, something that surprised head coach Joe Fernandez, but the sophomore certainly had the last laugh as he dominated all four of his matches, three of them by pin and the other by major decision, while winning the tournament.
“That kid has improved so much this season,” Fernandez said.
Two members of Upper Lake’s girls team also brought home medals as Dena Loans Arrow placed third at 128 pounds while Tatum Salas came in seventh at 106 pounds.
Middletown
With many of his top wrestlers on the mend, Middletown head coach Brian Hunt sent a largely junior varsity boys contingent to Ukiah with a couple of exceptions. Varsity boys standout Anthony Nudi beat the No. 1 seed at 160 pounds en route to winning a fourth-place medal and Jayde Miles came in third at 116 pounds in the girls division, her only loss coming to eventual 116-pound champion Mavis Pyorre of Clear Lake.
“It was a nice showing for them at their very last tournament (of the regular season),” Hunt said of Nudi and Miles, two of only a handful of Middletown varsity wrestlers who have managed to avoid the injury bug this season.
Five other Middletown JV boys placed fifth or higher, led by Sam Bomberry’s second-place finish at 160 pounds. Thirds went to Parker Boden at 126 pounds and Caleb Sternberg at 138 pounds, and fifths went to Anthony Mikel at 126 pounds and Jackson Bomberry at 145 pounds.
Middletown closes out its CMC regular-season schedule Wednesday against Lower Lake and Kelseyville in Kelseyville beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Hunt said he is hopeful most of his wrestlers will return to the mat in time to compete at the CMC Championships Feb. 15 in Lower Lake
