UNION CITY — There were a couple of surprises Friday as a dozen Lake County boys advanced to day two of the North Coast Section Section Wrestling Championships at James Logan High School in Union City.
Three of those 12 are undefeated (all 2-0) and still alive for section championships — Lower Lake’s Quentin Vilmenay at 126 pounds, Clear Lake’s Liam Davis at 152 pounds and Upper Lake’s Bradley Sneathen at 285 pounds. The other nine each have one loss and are in the consolation bracket where they can still finish as high as third place, which is a big deal since the top three in each weight class advance to the CIF State Championships beginning next Thursday in Bakersfield. The top eight medal.
Vilmenay and Davis are the No. 5 seeds in their respective weight classes while Sneathen is No. 4 in the 285-pound division. Lake County’s other two seeded wrestlers didn’t make it. Lower Lake’s Bryan Gudino, the No. 3 seed at 106 pounds, was unable to compete in the tournament because of an injury. Teammate Gabriel “Gordo” Ambriz, the No. 7 seed at 132 pounds, went 1-1 in the championship bracket before forfeiting his first consolation match, ending his tournament.
Day two survivors are Travis Boyles of Kelseyville and Adrian Truby of Clear Lake at 106 pounds, Dominick Clark of Middletown at 113 pounds, Donavan Fernandez of Upper Lake at 126 pounds, David Sypnicki of Middletown at 138 pounds, Caleb Sternberg of Middletown at 152 pounds, Anthony Gersalia of Clear Lake at 170 pounds, Joey Franklin of Upper Lake at 195 pounds, and Adam Viramontes of Lower Lake at 220 pounds. All went 2-1 except Gersalia, Sternberg and Franklin, who went 3-1.
Championship bracket
Lower Lake’s Vilmenay pinned Matthew Brightman of Fortuna High School early in the third round to open the tournament and beat Julian Aung of Clayton Valley Charter 7-3 to reach the quarterfinal round. He’ll face Cooper Cohee of Justin-Siena High School of Napa in the quarterfinal round Saturday.
Clear Lake’s Davis pinned each of his first two opponents, beginning with Selichi Naddy of Concord High School in a first-round match and Jonathan Chavez of Piner High School in the second round. His quarterfinal-round opponent Saturday is Isaiah Lee of San Ramon Valley High School.
Upper Lake’s Sneathen pinned Milson Contreras of Redwood High School in opening-round action and won a hard-fought 3-0 decision against Luke Crvarich of Las Lomas High School in the second round. Sneathen draws Jason Harrison of Antioch High School in Saturday’s quarterfinals, which will be their third meeting of the season. Harrison won the first encounter and Sneathen the second. If Sneathen beats Harrison, he’ll likely draw No. 1 seed Gerard Marshall of Hoopa in the semifinals, another wrestler who is no stranger. Marshall is 3-0 against Sneathen this season although their last meeting was the closest one yet, a 3-2 decision.
“It could go either way,” Upper Lake co-head coach Brandon Sneathen said of a a fourth match between his younger brother and Marshall.
“My kids wrestled great today, I was pleased,” Sneathen said. “I think all three of my kids are going to place.”
Consolation bracket
Clear Lake’s Gersalia answered a 3-0 loss to Healdsburg’s Jesus Anguiano in his 170-pound opener by winning three straight consolation matches. In order, he beat Sean Rowland of Eureka 9-0, Giancarlo Fernandez of Pittsburg by first-round pin, and Eli Smith of Willits by 16-2 decision. Gersalia also defeated Smith last weekened to win the CMC Championship at Middletown.
Upper Lake’s Franklin won his outbracket match with Nathan Albright of Amador Valley by 8-6 decision before losing in the first round to Liam Armistead of Tamalpais High School by second-round pin. In the consolation bracket, Franklin bounced back with a second-round pin of Mike Hines of Berearn Christian High School and a first-round pin of Austin Totty of American Canyon High School.
“The loss was his first of the season,” Sneathen said of Franklin. “He was pretty dominant in the matches he won.”
Middletown’s Sternberg won a 2-0 decision over Justin Farmer of James Logan High School in an outbracket match before losing by the same score to Gavin Fernandez of De La Salle High School in the first round. Sternberg came back with back-to-back first-round pins over Elijah Sudaria of John F. Kennedy High School in the consolation bracket.
Truby lost his first match of the day but stayed alive by winning twice in the consolation bracket, including a 13-7 decision over Middletown’s Kayden Menzio.
Middletown’s Clark and Sypnicki, Kelseyville’s Boyles, Lower Lake’s Viramontes and Upper Lake’s Fernandez won their tournament openers before losing in the second round. They all earned a trip to day two with consolation-round victories.
Fernandez finished fourth at 126 pounds in the CMC Championships a week ago, but he got a bid into the sectionals when Cloverdale’s Kagen Jones, the CMC runner-up at 126 pounds, couldn’t go to Union City because of an injury. Given a new life in the postseason, Fernandez made the most of it Friday.
“The fourth-place guy from our conference is going to day two,” Sneathen said. “He came into the tournament as an alternate and he is wrestling phenomenally. His wrestling IQ is off the charts.”
