BAKERSFIELD — Middletown High School freshman Krystal Ocken and Upper Lake High School sophomore Bella Fernandez served notice Friday during the CIF State Championships in Bakersfield that they are wrestlers to be taken seriously. While their first year of high school competition came to an end one day sooner than they wanted, their accomplishments in 2021-22 were considerable.
“She had a great season, I’m really proud of her,” Middletown assistant coach Brian Hunt said not long after Ocken’s season ended with a 9-1 loss to Audrey Segura of Redwood High School (Castro Valley) in the consolation quarterfinal round, which left the Middletown standout just one win shy of clinching a top-eight finish, a medal of some sort, and a chance Saturday to finish as high as third place at 160 pounds.
Likewise Fernandez just missed a state medal and a trip to Saturday’s final rounds when she was pinned by Victoria Wells of Granite Bay in the first round of the 116-pound consolation quarterfinals, her third match Friday.
“It’s always gonna be a battle at state,” said Upper Lake assistant coach Anthony Fernandez, Bella’s dad. “Two (state) wins is a hell of a season.”
Ocken and Fernandez were part of a quartet of Lake County wrestlers who made the trip down south to Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield where both the girls and boys state championships are taking place at the 10-mat facility, but they were the only two who reached the consolation quarterfinals.
Bradley Sneathen of Upper Lake, Lake County’s lone boy representative at state, came close, winning each of his first two consolation matches Friday before his tournament run and senior year ended with a loss to Angelo Franco of Serrano High School (Phelan) one round short of the consolation quarterfinals.
Another Upper Lake standout, junior Tatum Salas at 121 pounds, lost her first consolation match Friday, ending her tournament at 0-2 while Ocken, Fernandez and Sneathen all ended up 2-2 in their first appearance at the state championships.
Fernandez, Ocken, Sneathen and Salas won their respective weight classes at the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships earlier this month and all four finished third last weekend at the North Coast Section Championships to qualify for state. All but Salas, a No. 9 seed, were unseeded going into the state tournament.
Girls
Fernandez got the early jump on Jordyn Perez of Gilroy in her first consolation match Friday, ultimately carrying a 9-1 lead into the third round before pinning Perez. She came back a few hours later to score a 25-9 tech fall over Kaitlin Castro of Bishop Amat High School (La Puente). Later in the day against Wells, Fernandez fell behind 2-0 on a takedown before being pinned.
Ocken, the only Lake County wrestler to win in first-round action Thursday — she went 1-1 on day one — faced Yessenia Sanchez of Carlsbad High in the consolation bracket Friday. Ocken scored a pair of two-point takedowns to build a 4-1 lead before pinning Sanchez early in the second round. Against Segura, who is also a freshman, in the consolation quarterfinals, Ocken fell behind 4-0 before scoring an escape point. Segura added two more takedowns and an escape point to win 9-1.
Salas, 0-1 after Thursday’s action, lost in her first consolation match Friday, ending her season. Presley Anderson of Marina High School (Huntington Beach) pinned Salas in the first round of their 121-pound elimination match.
Boys
Sneathen faced Christian Venegas of Montgomery High School of San Diego to open Friday’s consolation action and he made an escape point in the third round stand up for a 1-0 victory. Later that afternoon he squared off against Seamus Boyle of Mount Miguel (Spring Valley), jumping out to a 4-0 lead before pinning Boyle just 1:17 into the first round. In his season-ending loss to Franco, Sneathen was trailing 3-1 in the second round when Franco pinned him.
