Two Sonoma County wrestlers are seeded No. 1 in their weight classes, leading 131 other Redwood Empire boys wrestlers who will compete beginning Friday at the two-day North Coast Sectionals at James Logan High School.
Analy’s Trevor Bagan is seeded as the top wrestler in the 113-pound division, while Windsor’s Perez Perez is No. 1 at 152.
Ukiah leads the region with six wrestlers seeded among the top eight seeds of their classes, while Windsor has five representing the upper tier going into the double-elimination meet in Union City.
Bagan, a junior, is the first No. 1 seed ever for the Tigers, assistant coach Ryan Stevens said.
The undefeated Sonoma County League champ, Bagan brings a 29-5 overall record into the NCS, along with two individual meet titles and two second-place finishes.
He defeated another top seed, No. 4 Jake Lilingston of De La Salle, 7-0 in an earlier meeting this season.
“He was a state qualifier last year, so that’s good for Trevor,” Stevens said.
Another indicator of Bagan’s talent is that he lost just 1-0 to Brandon Paulson of Clovis High, then the seventh-ranked 113-pound wrestler in the state. Bagan is ranked 21st.
Friday morning, Bagan will face Keichi Serrano, a Adiosbet 17-10 sophomore from Campolindo, in his first-round match.
“Trevor is familiar with him. He wrestled against him in an out-of-season meet,” Stevens said. “He is very confident that he will be able to handle him.”
Bagan has quick feet and hips, and loves to make explosive moves, Stevens said.
“He likes to shoot. He’s a very good reactive wrestler,” he said. “When somebody tries to hit a move on him, he’s got a good natural balance and can defend it.”
Last year, Bagan finished fourth, one spot off from qualifying for state. His coach feels like this year will be even better.
Two other Tigers will be competing along with Bagan, including his younger brother, Preston, at 106 and Jimmy Carreras at 126. Both are sophomores and unseeded.
Windsor’s Perez, a junior, leads four other Jaguars seeded in the top eight, among 10 total wrestlers heading to the NCS.
He is 36-6, coming in with meet titles from San Marin and the Tim Brown tournament and second-places finishes at two others.
Ukiah leads the way with a total of 12 wrestlers competing, including No. 2 seed Dylan Miles in the 220-pound class. Miles, a senior, enters the NCS with a 32-11 record.
At 170, Healdsburg’s Anthony Merlo is seeded No. 2, as is Upper Lake’s Jose Fernandez III at 126.
The 170-pound weight class is heavy with local wrestlers, with four from the North Bay and Sonoma County leagues among the top eight seeds, including Merlo, Maria Carrillo’s Cameron Casey (3), Tyler Winslow of Sonoma Valley (5) and Wyatt Myers of Ukiah (7).
The tournament kicks off Friday at 8:30 a.m. and runs through 6 p.m.
On Saturday, quarterfinals begin in the morning with semifinals at 11 a.m., and loser-bracket matches throughout.
Third-through-eighth-place matches are from 4:40-6:30 p.m. Saturday, with the finals at 6:30 p.m.
Results can be tracked online at www.ncswrestling.com.
NCS boys wrestling
Seeded wrestlers from the Redwood Empire for this weekend’s North Coast Section championship tournament at James Logan High School in Union City. Seeds in parentheses, wrestler’s overall record follows school name. The top three finishers in each weight class qualify for the state tournament, March 3 and 4, at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
113 POUNDS: (1) Trevor Bagan, Analy, 29-5; (5) Dominic Montanez, Healdsburg, 17-6; (7) Ashton Stanley, Ukiah, 32-12.
120 POUNDS: (7) Will Christensen, Ukiah, 29-13.
126 POUNDS: (2) Jose Fernandez, Upper Lake, 31-4; (5) Matt Green, Maria Carrillo, 23-8.
132 POUNDS: (6) Jake Butler, Cardinal Newman, 17-2; (8) Tyler Vesey, Willits, 33-8.
138 POUNDS: (6) Alex Garcia, Kelseyville, 25-9.
145 POUNDS: (3) Luke Au-Yeung, Windsor, 25-7; (6) Casey Frazier, Cardinal Newman, 28-10.
152 POUNDS: (1) Perez Perez, Windsor, 36-6.
160 POUNDS: (4) Steven Allee, Windsor, 27-7; (5) Cody Shepherd, Ukiah, 30-10.
170 POUNDS: (2) Anthony Merlo, Healdsburg, 33-8; (3) Cameron Casey, Maria Carrillo, 32-7; (5) Tyler Winslow, Sonoma Valley, 16-4; (7) Wyatt Myers, Ukiah, 21-9.
182 POUNDS: (3) Noah Bartolome, Sonoma Valley, 20-3; (6) Mike Cavender, Fort Bragg, 24-6; (7) Manny Martinez, Ukiah, 33-12.
195 POUNDS: (3) Aiden Henry, Windsor, 33-11.
220 POUNDS: (6) Kevin Correa, Windsor, 30-13.
285 POUNDS: (3) Gunnar Hayman, Cardinal Newman, 21-4.; (6) Michael Jamison, Lower Lake, 23-7; (8) Colten Horger, Willits, 17-9.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
