LAKE COUNTY — Tatum Salas of Upper Lake, one of four state-bound high school wrestlers from Lake County, is the No. 9 seed in the 121-pound division going into opening-round action Thursday at the CIF State Championships at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.
Both the girls and boys state tournaments are taking place at the same time — Thursday through Saturday — at Mechanics Bank Arena. Salas, a junior, is one of three county girls headed south, joining sophomore teammate Bella Fernandez (116 pounds) and Middletown freshman Krystal Ocken (160 pounds). Upper Lake senior Bradley Sneathen (285 pounds) is the county’s lone representatives in the boys tournament.
All four county wrestlers earned the right to advance to the state tournament by placing third in their respective weight classes last weekend at the North Coast Section Championships.
Salas
Salas opens against Anderson Presley of Marina High School (Huntington Beach), the runner-up in the Southern Section. Presley is ranked No. 24 in the 32-man bracket. Lurking on the same side of the bracket as Salas is No. 1 seed Elena Ivaldi of Del Oro, the San Joaquin Section champion. They would meet in the quarterfinals if both win their first two matches.
The Salas-Presley winner advances to the second round against the winner of a first-round match between Briseis Serrano of Lincoln High School and Melody Hernandez of Exeter, the No. 8 seed.
Fernandez
Seeded 25th in the 32-man bracket at 116 pounds, Upper Lake’s Fernandez draws another Marina High School wrestler, No. 8 seed Jordyn Chrisco, in the first round. Chrisco is the Southern Section third-place finisher.
The Fernandez-Chrisco winner meets the winner of a first-round round match between No. 9 seed Jordyn Perez (Gilroy) and Isabel Perez-Zoghbi (Merced) in the second round.
If Fernandez wins her first two matches, she could see No. 1 seed Carissa Qureshi of Portola High School (Irvine) in the quarterfinals.
Ocken
Middletown’s Ocken squares off against Madalyn Luna of Golden West High School (Visalia), the Central Section fourth-place finisher, in the opening round. Ocken is ranked 14th and Luna 19th in the 32-man bracket.
The Ocken-Luna winner draws the winner of a first-round match between No. 3 seed Angelinah De Leon (Wilcox) and Alaysia Wyatt (Lawndale) in the second round.
The top two 160-pound seeds are No. 1 Kalila Shrive of Merrill West High School (Tracy), San Joaquin Section champion, and No. 2 Kaiulani Garcia (Gilroy), the Central Coast champion.
Sneathen
Upper Lake’s Sneathen goes up against No. 12 seed Ishaia Morales of Lemoore, the Central Section third-place finisher, in first-round action. The victor goes up against the winner of another first-round match between Seamus Boyle of Mount Miguel High School (Spring Valley) and either No. 5 seed Christian Smith of Clovis or Gabriel Johnson of Ponderosa High School (Shingle Springs).
No. 1 seed Daniel Herrera of Palm Desert High School, the Southern Section champion, is also on Sneathen’s side of the bracket.
No. 10 seed Gerard Marshall of Hoopa, the North Coast Section champion who is 4-0 against Sneathen this season, is on the other side of the bracket along with No. 2 seed Javier Martinez of Dinuba High School.
