ALBANY— The best story you may have missed Saturday during the North Coast Section Girls Wrestling Championships were the final team standings. While most of the attention at high-profile tournaments such as the section finals goes to the pursuit of medals and state berths, there is also a team championship up for grabs.
When the dust settled at the conclusion of day two at Albany High School, sitting at the top of those standings were powerhouses Vintage High School of Napa, first with 154 points, and James Logan High School of Union City, second with 150. That wasn’t a surprise. Vintage has an enrollment of 1,801 and James Logan 3,650. However, a closer look at the standings revealed a real nugget. There in 10th place, with nothing but large schools surrounding it, was Upper Lake High School, enrollment 293, with 66.5 points in the field of 70-plus teams. You may have missed it, but Upper Lake co-head coach Eddie Peregrina didn’t.
“And we took only four girls,” Peregrina said. “I’m excited. I’ve been coaching girls a long time. Next year we’re going to have a bigger squad and I want to win a section title. The individual success is great, but I want do this as a team, that’s my dream.”
If Peregrina can acquire a few more wrestlers with the talent of sophomore Bella Fernandez and juniors Tatum Salas and Maddy Young, that dream may be realized sooner rather than later. All three Upper Lake wrestlers won medals Saturday at Albany High School while Fernandez, third at 116 pounds, and Salas, third at 121 pounds, punched their tickets for the CIF State Championships beginning Thursday at the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield, which is hosting the girls and boys state tournaments at the same time.
Fernandez and Salas will be joined there by Lake County’s third state qualifier, Middletown freshman Krystal Ocken at 160 pounds. Like Fernandez and Salas, she brought home a third-place medal from Albany.
While Young missed a berth in the state meet in her first year of wrestling for the Cougars, she came away with a fifth-place medal at 131 pounds. Clear Lake’s Addyson Munoz also medaled, taking sixth at 137 pounds, after a great Saturday charge through the consolation bracket.
Peregrina, Fernandez and Salas head south Wednesday in preparation for first-round matches Thursday. The tournament runs through Saturday.
Fernandez
The No. 2 seed at 116 pounds going into the tournament, Fernandez ended up losing only one of her six matches, a marathon four-overtime 10-8 loss to eventual section winner and No. 3 seed Carmella Foley of James Logan High School in the semifinals.
The margin of difference between the two wrestlers was slight, according to Peregrina, but just enough to get Foley the win in the end.
“The match was electrifying,” Peregrina said. “The one thing she (Fernandez) doesn’t have yet is the footspeed, but she’s going to develop that with work. The difference between the two is very minimal.”
The loss knocked Fernandez into the consolation bracket where she needed a win in her next match to lock up a top-four finish and a trip to the CIF State Championships. She got it against another tough customer in No. 4 seed Stephanie Barrientos of Napa, an 8-2 decision that moved her into the third-place match against Marissa Cheng of San Ramon Valley. Fernandez dominated before pinning Cheng early in the second round.
Two-time section and 2019 state champion Adriana Lopez of Upper was in Fernandez’s corner on Saturday, helping where she could, according to Peregrina.
Fernandez had plenty of people in her corner Saturday, but she didn’t need much help rebounding from her tough semifinal loss, according to Peregrina.
“Bella doesn’t really get down,” Peregrina said. “She is very focused, very eager, there’s a lot of drive behind her and she’s a quick learner.”
With just a break here or there in her quadruple-overtime loss to Foley, Fernandez could have easily emerged with the section championship, according to Peregrina.
“I just got back into wrestling the girls and I’m getting to know them and they’re getting to know me,” Peregrina said. “I feel like maybe I could have done a better job coaching her in that match if I had known her better. I feel like I let her down a little bit.
“Bella’s future is looking bright,” Peregrina added.
Salas
Using her head-and-arm throw to maximum effect throughout the tournament, Salas also earned a third-place medal and a state berth by going 5-1, including four wins by pin and another by technical fall. Like teammate Fernandez, her lone loss came in the semifinals where she was pinned by No. 2 seed Cassidy Lopez of Vintage, who would later lose to No. 1 seed of Carlia Ott of Castro Valley High School in the finals.
“That’s her go-to move,” Peregrina said of Salas’ head and arm. “She’s strong and the girls can’t get out of it.”
And just as Fernandez had to win her first match in the consolation bracket to guarantee a top-four finish and a trip to Bakersfield, so did Salas. She answered with a second-round pin of Cayle Donawa of Salesian in the consolation semifinals followed by a second-round pin of Chloe Solla of Benicia in the third-place match.
Much like her teammates, Salas’ footspeed needs to improve, according to Peregrina, but that probably wouldn’t have saved her against Lopez in the semifinals.
“That girl was super strong,” Peregrina said.
Ocken
Competing in one of the smallest weight divisions at the sectionals — only 11 wrestlers in all — Ocken qualified for day two automatically as she was one of five wrestlers to receive a first-round bye directly into Saturday’s quarterfinals. She pinned Melody Tootian of San Ramon Valley by first-round pin before falling to No. 2 seed Haley Joseph of College Park in the semifinals.
The loss put Ocken into the consolation semifinals where she pinned Piper Bjorkstedt of Acarta four seconds into the second round. That moved her into the third-place match, which guaranteed her a berth in Bakersfield.
Ocken capped her tournament with a 7-1 win over Ukiah’s Vanessa Tepale in the third-place match.
Young
Young, a two-sport winter athlete who also started for Upper Lake’s varsity girls basketball team, received a first-round bye Friday before pinning Anahi Marin Vasquez in the second round. The No. 6 seed opened Saturday in the quarterfinals and was pinned by No. 3 seed Ruby Duncan, who would meet Young again later that day.
Once the first-year wrestler hit the consolation bracket, Young won her next two matches by 3-1 decision and third-round pin. Needing a victory in the consolation semifinals to clinch a state berth, Young dropped a 5-1 decision to No. 4 seed Carmen Alsip of Salesian. Alsip would go on to place third.
Dropped into the fifth-place match, Young won by injury default over Duncan.
“That was impressive,” Peregrina said of Young’s high finish in her first sectional tournament.
“She was a twice-a-week wrestler for me because she was also going to basketball practice,” Peregrina said. “I told her you have to be more committed than that if you want to do better. She’s super strong, mentally tough but just doesn’t know the moves. She knows a few moves now but there’s a lot more she can learn. I know she was a little down on herself for finishing fifth, but the girl she wrestled (in the consolation semifinals), that match could have gone either way.”
Added Peregrina, “For a No. 6 seed to finish fifth, she did better than expected and that’s something to be proud of. There’s no reason to feel bad about that.”
Munoz
Munoz made a determined Saturday run for a state berth, reeling off four straight wins in the consolation bracket — two pins and 5-2 and 4-2 decisions. She was a win away from going to Bakersfield when she dropped a four-overtime, 9-5 decision to Shama Wahba of American High School.
In the fifth-place match that followed, Munoz lost 9-5 to No. 4 seed to Maizie Fugate of Eureka.
Day one
Nine Lake County wrestlers pushed through to day two of the tournament. Along with the Upper Lake trio of Fernandez, Salas and Young, Clear Lake’s Munoz and Middletown’s Ocken, four other Middletown wrestlers — Cat Barriga (101 pounds), Nicole Pyzer (106), Hannah Gotz (131) and Mariah Ketchum (143) — all advanced.
Ketchum opened Saturday in the quarterfinals but was pinned by Leilani Frazer of Vintage in the first round. Ketchum also lost by pin in her first consolation match, ending her tournament.
Barriga lost her first match Friday but stayed alive with a win in the consolation round. She opened Saturday with another win, a 3-2 decision, before losing her next match 7-4.
Pyzer also lost her first match. After receiving a bye in her first consolation match, she pinned Emily Gersalia of Clear Lake and Urmi Mandal of Irvington before losing by pin to Channey Schaad of Del Norte.
Gotz lost her first match and had a bye in her first consolation match. She pinned Alyssa Scallin of College Park before being pinned by Brook Boone of Eureka.
