LAKEPORT — Twenty-nine years after winning its last Coastal Mountain Conference wrestling championship, the Clear Lake High School’s boys team owned the day on Saturday at Middletown High School.
Clear Lake entered the CMC Championships tied with Willits following the dual-meet portion of the regular season, and with Upper Lake, Middletown and Lower Lake right behind them in the standings. A number of outcomes were possible depending on how those teams fared Saturday, but the Cardinals were having none of that. Instead, they took matters into their own hands by piling up 148 points to easily win the meet and claim the overall CMC title in the process.
And while Clear Lake had plenty of reason to celebrate Saturday, including weight class wins by Ayden Williamson at 138 pounds, Liam Davis at 152 pounds and Anthony Gersalia at 170 pounds, the Middletown Mustangs also were smiling after winning the inaugural CMC Championships for girls, the first time the conference’s female wrestlers have had their own dedicated tournament. Middletown weight class winners were Nicole Pyzer at 101 pounds, Hannah Gotz at 131 pounds and Krystal Ocken at 160 pounds.
Boys
Clear Lake brought 11 wrestlers to Middletown and eight of them walked away with either first-, second- or third-place medals to punch their ticket to the North Coast Section Championships beginning Friday and running through Saturday at James Logan High School in Union City. Fourth-place finishes also can qualify for the sectionals should one of the top-three finishers in their weight class decide not to participate.
“I always knew this group was capable of winning all year long,” Clear Lake head coach Tyler Hayes said. “They all fought hard and had some amazing matches. We will miss our seniors next year but we are building the program from middle school on up and plan to be contenders for some time to come. I’m looking forward to seeing these kids compete at the next level this Saturday at NCS,” Hayes added.
“It’s been 29 long years, but CLHS finally has another conference championship and we are far from done,” Clear Lake assistant coach Gerard Fowler said. “We would like to thank all the parents, coaches, referees and the school administration for making this possible. We’d also like to thank our sponsors, CrakerJack Cleaning, Lake Fleet Repair & Tow, Granite Construction, and Lake County Electric for their support.”
While Clear Lake didn’t win the most weight classes Saturday – Upper Lake did with four – the Cardinals’ piled up the team points and ended up with eight medals overall. Besides firsts by Williamson, Davis and Gersalia, Hayden Fowler came in second at 145 pounds after dropping a 17-7 decision to Upper Lake’s Dylan Slater, and Adrian Truby (106), Gary White (113), Mohammed Akbari (126) and Carson Wikstrom (182) all added thirds.
Jayden Vestal (132) and Bobby Bruhn (195) just missed medals with fourth-place finishes.
Clear Lake finished with 148 team points to 121 for the Lower Lake Trojans, who had three weight class winners and nearly a fourth. Willits came in third with 119, Upper Lake was fourth with 106 and Middletown was fifth with 104.
The top three teams received plaques in both the boys and girls tournaments.
Lower Lake
For the Trojans, Bryan Gudino scored a 15-0 technical fall over Travis Boyles of Kelseyville in the 106-pound championship match and was later named the tournament’s outstanding lightweight.
Lower Lake also picked up firsts at 126 pounds where Quentin Vilmenay defeated Cloverdale’s Kegan Jones 7-3, and at 132 pounds where Gabriel “Gordo” Ambriz pinned Cloverdale Dylan Jones in the second round. The Trojans were well on their way to another first at 220 pounds where Adam Viramontes held an 11-6 lead in points in the third round against Kelseyville’s Triton Marlowe, but Marlow turned Viramontes and pinned him with less than a minute to go.
Lower Lake picked up a pair of third-place medals as well. They went to Julius Sanchez at 120 pounds and Pierce Edwards at 285 pounds.
Upper Lake
The Upper Cougars advanced four wrestlers to the finals and all four won, beginning with Slater’s 17-7 win over Clear Lake’s Fowler at 145 pounds. Will Henry pinned Middletown’s Eli Moreno at 182 pounds and Joey Franklin won a hard-fought 7-5 decision with Middletown’s Steven Peterson at 195 pounds. Capping off the tournament, heavyweight Bradley Sneathen pinned Fort Bragg’s Pedro Alvarado early in the first round at 285 pounds.
Elijah Alvarez won a third-place medal at 160 pounds.
Middletown
The tournament-host Mustangs won the 114-pound weight class where Dominick Clark pinned Fort Bragg’s Jesse Rexrode in the third round of the finals. Seconds went to David Sypnicki, who lost to Clear Lake’s Williamson by first-round pin at 138 pounds, to Moreno at 182 pounds, and to Peterson at 195 pounds.
Mustangs taking home third-place medals were Caleb Sternberg at 152 pounds and California Howland at 170 pounds.
Kelseyville
Marlow’s win over Viramontes at 220 pounds provided Kelseyville with its only first-place medal while Boyles came in second at 106 pounds.
Other winners
Dean Smith of Willits won the 120-pound weight class, beating Walker Swithenbank of Fort Bragg by 7-4 decision, and Zachary Morgan of Fort Bragg beat Adrian Rabano of Willits 9-5 to win at 160 pounds. Morgan earned outstanding wrestler honor along with Lower Lake’s Gudino.
Girls championships
Middletown had a big advantage coming into the inaugural girls CMC Championships with 11 wrestlers, more than twice the number of the two next biggest squads — Upper Lake and Clear Lake, both with five.
“Before the medal round even started I looked at the team points and knew we had it,” Middletown assistant coach Brian Hunt said.
It wasn’t only a quantity thing for the Mustangs, who displayed plenty of quality wrestling throughout the day, including firsts by Pyzer (101), Gotz (131) and Ocken (160).
The Mustangs also came away with four second-place medals — Cat Barriga (106), Izzy Barriga (111), Pailey Shook (121) and Mariah Ketchum (143) – and three thirds — Kamilah Chairez (116), Taylor Thompson (126) and Gabby Licea (150).
“My girls were thrilled,” Hunt said. “They were on the first team to win the (CMC) girls tournament, which is quite an honor.”
Middletown rolled up 135 points, well ahead of the runner-up Upper Lake Cougars with 81 and the third-place Willits Wolverines with 66. Clear Lake came in fourth with 60, St. Helena was next with 34, and Lower Lake, Cloverdale, Kelseyville and Fort Bragg all tied with 16.
Upper Lake
The Cougars’ only five wrestlers all medaled, including weight class winners Bella Fernandez at 116 pounds, Tatum Salas at 121 pounds and Maddy Young at 126. Jade Woolley lost to Gotz in the 131-pound finals, and Kamden Murray came in third at 137 pounds.
Clear Lake
Clear Lake’s medal haul included firsts by Anyssa Perez, who beat Middletown’s Izzy Barriga in the 111-pound finals, and Addyson Muniz, who beat Willits’ Allison Southard in the 137-pound finals.
Clear Lake’s Tara Wong lost to Middletown’s Pyzer in the 101-pound finals and Elissa Beck came in third at 106 pounds where Mary Ann Bertolino of Willits beat Middletown’s Cat Barriga in the finals.
Bertolino and Upper Lake’s Fernandez were named the outstanding wrestlers of the tournament.
“ I’ve never seen these girls smile so much as when they were on the podium during the medal ceremony,” Clear Lake assistant coach Chris Clarkin said. “We are off to NCS girls next weekend and we are excited.”
Kelseyville
Kelseyville’s lone medal went to Jordan Hoefler at 126 pounds.
Other winners
St. Helena’s Gemma Hanna defeated Middletown’s Ketchum to win at 143 pounds, and Nevaeh Jones of Willits claimed the 150-pound title win a win over St. Helena’s Piper Pike in the finals.
The 160-pound weight class won by Middletown’s Ocken was the last contested weight class among the girls.
Sections
All of Lake County’s girls wrestlers, regardless of where they placed Saturday in Middletown, are eligible to compete in the North Coast Section Championships Friday and Saturday at Albany High School in Albany.
