ALBANY — It wasn’t their high school, but the home of the Cougars — in this case the Albany Cougars — served as the site where two Upper Lake Cougars, senior Maddy Young and freshman Lexy Peregrina, felt right at home Saturday while winning titles in their respective weight classes as the North Coast Section Girls Wrestling Championships wrapped up its two-day run.
And what a ride if was for Young, the No. 3 seed at 131 pounds, and Peregrina, the No. 1 seed at 150 pounds. They’ll both advance to the CIF State Championships, which open Thursday in Bakersfield, hoping to duplicate the feat of Upper Lake 2019 graduate Adriana Lopez, who won a state championship four years ago at 121 pounds, the first Lake County athlete to win a state title in any high school sport.
Young, a dual-sport winter athlete (wrestling, basketball), knocked off No. 2 seed Maci Stemmons of Monte Vista High School (Danville) by second-round pin in the semifinals before beating No. 1 seed Hannah Ripper of Miramonte High School (Orinda) 4-3 in the 131-pound finals, capping a 5-0 tournament run. Peregrina went 4-0 in two day of competition, closing things out with a 19-5 major decision over No. 2 seed Mahlyah Sao of Newark Memorial High School in an all-freshman finals.
Along with teammate Tatum Salas, who finished fifth at 126 pounds, the Cougars came away with three of the seven medals awarded to Lake County wrestlers at this year’s sectional tournament (top-eight finishers in each weight class receive medals). A top-four finish was required to move on to the CIF State Championships.
Other medalists were Clear Lake’s Addyson Munoz, fifth at 137 pounds; Middletown’s Nicole Pyzer, sixth at 101 pounds; Middletown’s Krystal Ocken, sixth at 170 pounds; and Clear Lake’s Nicole Buechler, seventh at 189 pounds.
Salas, Munoz, Pyzer and Ocken all came within a win of reaching the third-place match, which would have guaranteed them a state tournament berth.
Seven county wrestlers reached the quarterfinals Friday but only Young and Peregrina won their matches Saturday. Young moved into the semifinals by pinning Audrey Lanzit of Ukiah by 6-0 decision while Peregrina pinned Rocio Ortiz of Livermore in only 37 seconds.
Peregrina won each of her first three matches — one on Friday and two on Saturday — by fall. Young had three pins among her five wins.
Young pulled double duty earlier in the week, helping lead Upper Lake’s varsity girls basketball team to wins over The Bay School on Tuesday and Head-Royce on Friday in the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs. Young opened Friday afternoon at the wrestling sectionals in Albany and hit the road immediately following her second match so that she could be back in Upper Lake in time for the 7 p.m. quarterfinal-round game with Head-Royce. She arrived at the gym about 10 minutes before the opening tip. Young’s strong play on defense against both The Bay School and Head-Royce figured prominently in the Cougars’ 47-27 and 56-38 wins.
Young will split time between the two sports again in the coming week. As she prepares for the state wrestling tournament, Upper Lake hosts Mount Diablo of Concord in the Division 5 basketball semifinals on Tuesday. If the Cougars win and advance to the championship game, they’ll play either Friday or Saturday, which could lead to an interesting situation since the state wrestling finals run through Saturday in Bakersfield, a long way from where the Division 5 title game is likely to occur — San Francisco or San Anselmo.
Despite entering only four wrestlers in the tournament, Upper Lake placed sixth out of more than 100 teams. James Logan High School of Union City won the team title.
