LAKE COUNTY — Upper Lake High School sophomore Bella Fernandez enters the North Coast Section Girls Wrestling Championships on Friday at Albany High School as the No. 2 seed in the 116-pound weight class, one of four Lake County girls seeded sixth or better.
Fresh off her victory Saturday at the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships in Middletown, Fernandez needs to finish in the top four at the sectional meet in Albany, which runs through Saturday, so that she can advance to the CIF State Championships on Feb. 24-26 at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.
Fernandez is the highest seed among the Lake County girls contingent headed to the sectionals.
Close behind her at No. 3 in the 160-pound division is Middletown High School freshman Krystal Ocken (24-4).
“Her and the No. 2 seed (Haley Joseph, 23-3, of College Park High School in Pleasant Hill) have similar records,” Middletown assistant coach Brian Hunt said. “Krystal lost to the No. 1 seed (Sophie Yurkovich, 16-4, of Liberty High School in Brentwood) earlier this season.”
Two other Upper Lake wrestlers, both juniors, are seeded in the sectional field as well. Tatum Salas is No. 4 at 121 pounds while Maddy Young is No. 6 at 126 pounds.
Only the top eight wrestlers are seeded in each weight class although there are provisional No. 9 seeds in the event one of the top eight cannot participate for some reason.
Two Middletown wrestlers — freshman Cat Barriga at 101 pounds and sophomore Mariah Ketchum at 143 pounds — are No. 9 in their weight class, according to Hunt.
Most of the 14 weight classes will run two rounds of championship and two rounds of consolation action Friday.
Top-eight finishers Saturday receive medals while the top four also advance to the state meet.
Three years ago senior Adriana Lopez of Upper Lake High School won the state title at 121 pounds, that after winning her second straight section title.
