MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – With hundreds of matches against dozens of wrestlers in 16 weight classes already in the books, it came down to the final contest of the entire two-day tournament before the Sutter Union Huskies (Sutter, Calif.) eked out the Upper Lake Cougars, 228-225, to take overall team first place in the 25th annual Middletown Invitational Wrestling Tournament held this weekend.
More than 300 raucous spectators packed the steamy Mustang gymnasium to watch 18 schools – including all five Lake county wrestling teams – compete head to head on three simultaneously-running tournament mats all day Friday and Saturday.
“We come here to win this tournament – that’s the bottom line,” fifth-year Cougars coach Ron Campos said of his runner-up wrestlers. “Our goal was to get five guys in the finals, and we got seven – a couple of the kids just stepped up.”
In a nail-biting thriller that was by far the closest match of the tournament finals, Upper Lake’s Ward Beecher secured a one-point escape with just one second left in regulation play to tie Lower Lake’s No. 1 seed Brandon Painchaud at 3-all.
After neither wrestler prevailed in either the sudden victory period nor the two subsequent tiebreaker periods, Beecher decisively scored a reverse in the final ultimate tiebreaker period to get the 5-3 win for the Cougars and help his team secure the overall runner-up tournament ranking.
Upper Lake had seven wrestlers in the finals – the most of any team in the tournament – and won three of those matches.
“Upper Lake is the top team in the county, in my opinion,” Middletown tournament director Troy Brierly said about the Cougars.
Upper Lake also took the 140-pound weight class, when No. 1 seed Nick Davison pinned Cardinal Newman’s Max Campana in the second period of their finals match.
In the girls' brackets, Upper Lake’s Emily Knispel pinned No. 1 seed Kim Agenbrood (Willits) in the second period to win the 125-145 weight class, and, after leading 2-0 going into the final period, Middletown’s Mary Mann lost to St. Helena’s Jessica Ardizzone 6-2 to finish second in the 108-pound weight class.
Brierly spoke about the increasing popularity of wrestling for females, citing its new status as an Olympic sport and indicating “girls' participation in this sport has increased tenfold” since then.
According to Brierly, at least five of the 18 teams participating this year in the Middletown Invitational brought girls to compete in two girls-only weight brackets.
“And to be quite honest, I think in 10 years you’re going to see most schools with all-girl teams,” Brierly continued, citing area schools like Ukiah, San Leandro and Hayward that already field all-girl teams.
Among other Lake County school participants, the Clear Lake Cardinals – who finished third overall in tournament team competition with 149 points – competed in three final matches Saturday in Middletown and came away winning two.
Clear Lake No. 1 seed Matt Lockwood pinned Fort Bragg’s Jacob Richards in the first period to win the 171-pound weight class, and Mike Reynolds beat Middletown junior Paul Rogers – the only unseeded wrestler in the tournament to make it to the finals – 4-2 to take home first place in the 189-pound bracket for the Cardinals.
“He’s got a good heart,” Brierly said about the lone Middletown male wrestler to make it to the tournament finals, and noted he beat the bracket’s No. 1 and No. 4 seeds to get there.
Jeffrey Ponce was the only Kelseyville Knight to compete in the finals, and pinned Jose Arreguin (Willits) in the second period of their match to win first place in the 112-pound weight class.
In addition to winning the overall team first place award, Sutter Union took home first place in four weight classes – more than any other team in the tournament – and won two other tournament awards.
“Our kids are doing well,” Sutter Union coach Ryan Reynolds said of his team prior to the start of the finals round. “We’ve got a great group of kids who are hard workers, so it’s awesome to see them be successful; you can’t ask for anything more.”
Sutter’s Justin Gildenmeister shut out Clear Lake’s Robby Hammers 8-0 in the 152-pound weight class final and won the tournament’s heavyweight MVP award, Blake Scroggins pinned Upper Lake’s Charlie Coburn in the third period to take the 160-pound bracket, No. 1 seed Alex Ryan pinned Kelseyville’s Jordan Brown in the first period to win the 215-pound class and Bryce Melani took home the tournament’s “fastest pin” award – nine seconds – and beat Lower Lake’s Cody Torres to win the 275-pound weight class.
Standouts for the Windsor Jaguars included Perez Perez, who beat Upper Lake’s Tony Lopez 13-5 to take first place in the 103-pound weight class, and Andres Torres, who won the lightweight tournament MVP award after pinning Upper Lake’s Travis Coleman in the first period of their final match to take first place in the 119-pound weight class.
In other finals, Ty Stevenson (McKinleyville) dominated Hunter Minton (Sutter Union) 15-0 to win by technical fall in the 125-pound bracket, Esparto’s Steven Juchneiwicz pinned Sutter Union’s Chris Steele at the start of their second period finals match to take the 145-pound bracket and Rio Nance (Willits) took the 130-pound weight class by shutting out Upper Lake’s Robert Simondi 6-0.
Santa Rosa’s Cardinal Newman Cardinals won the tournament’s sportsmanship award.
Saturday’s finals matches were preceded by a dedication ceremony for Middletown’s longtime wrestling coach Dennis Jensen, who started the Middletown wrestling team back in 1982. Starting next year, the tournament will be known as the Dennis Jensen Invitational.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .
