UNION CITY — Lake County won’t be sending a wrestler to the CIF State Boys Wrestling Championships this year, but five local grapplers did secure medals Saturday as the North Coast Section Championships concluded a two-day run at James Logan High School in Union City.
Only the top two wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state tournament in Bakersfield, which opens Thursday.
Travis Boyles of Kelseyville had the highest finish among the county’s wrestlers, placing fourth at 113 pounds. He won each of his first two matches Friday by technical fall before losing to Dakota Sanders of Arcata by 15-1 technical fall in the quarterfinals.
Battling in the consolation bracket Saturday, Boyles pinned three straight opponents to reach the third-place match, which he lost to Caleb Tatad of De La Salle High School (Concord) by 12-6 decision.
Quintin Vilmenay of Lower Lake High School, Liam Davis of Clear Lake High School and Travis Marlowe of Kelseyville High School all ended up with fifth-place medals while Middletown’s Dominick Clark finished seventh.
Vilmenay, a 132-pounder, pinned three straight opponents Friday to reach the semifinals. He opened Saturday with a 8-1 loss to No. 1 seed Josh Hannan of Arcata High School in the semifinals. Hannan went on to win the 132-pound title.
Once in the consolation bracket, Vilmenay lost again, this time by 5-3 decision to Curtis Bartley of Del Norte High School (Crescent City), which dropped him into the fifth-place match. He pinned Vincent Tyrell of Ukiah School in the second round to secure a medal, the second straight year he’s finished fifth (a year ago it was at 126 pounds).
Davis won his first two matches at 160 pounds on Friday, including an outbracket match, before losing in the quarterfinals to Colton Schaad of Del Norte High School by 8-3 decision. He won twice in the consolation bracket to close out day one at 4-1. On Saturday, he pinned each of his first two opponents to reach the consolation semifinals against a familiar foe, Zac Morgan of Fort Bragg High School. Morgan won a 5-0 decision in the fifth meeting this season between the two wrestlers. They split their first four matches.
Davis came back to pin Max Bantuic of Las Lomas High School (Walnut Creek) in only 37 seconds in the fifth-place match, capping his 7-2 tournament run.
Marlowe, a 220-pounder, scored first-round pins in his first two matches Friday before dropping a 5-2 decision to De La Salle’s Stefan Bakiev in the quarterfinals. Marlowe came back with two more pins Saturday to reach the consolation semifinals where he lost a 3-2 decision to James Aken of American Canyon High School.
In the fifth-place match, Marlowe pinned David Lopez of Napa in the second round.
Middletown’s Clark, competing in the same 113-pound weight class as Kelseyville’s Boyles, won 5-1 and 1-0 decision on Friday to reach the quarterfinals against No. 1 seed and eventual 113-pound champion Kekoa Madayag of Novato. Madayag pinned Clark in the third round.
Beginning Saturday in the consolation bracket, Clark won his first match by pin before losing an 8-7 thriller to Nicolas Trujillo of Benicia High School. Clark came back with a 4-1 victory over Garrett Nunemaker of Ukiah in the seventh-place match.
