Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com
By Ray Hamill — The North Coast Section boys and girls wrestling championships will be held this weekend, with the prestigious tournaments getting under way on Friday.
And there will be plenty of local interest, with a total of 92 H-DNL wrestlers making the trip south, including 32 girls.
The boys meet will take place at James Logan High School in Union City, while the girls meet will be held at Albany High.
A total of 13 local boys are seeded for the section championships, which is a bigger event than many state championships, including four who are seeded in the top four in their respective brackets.
Del Norte’s Chaz Harrison (132 pounds) and Skyler Moore (145) are each seeded No. 3 as they each look to improve on impressive finishes a year ago.
Harrison, a junior, is 30-5 on the season and has plenty of experience after a seventh place finish at the sections a year ago.
Likewise with Moore (32-3), a senior who placed fifth a year ago.
In total, Del Norte has six grapplers seeded for the big meet.
Senior Blake Allen is seeded No. 8 at 126 pounds, while juniors Walker Gensaw (No. 6 at 152) and Kurtis Turner (No. 8 at 160), and sophomore Brandon Jones (No. 6 at 195) are also seeded for the H-DNL champions.
The Fortuna Huskies also have a number of top contenders in their ranks.
Senior Andrew Hansen is 30-4 this season and seeded No. 3 at 138 pounds, while junior Levi Nyberg is No. 4 at 152.
Nyberg, who is 21-6 on the season, placed seventh in the 145 bracket at last year’s championships.
Senior Luciano Medina (No. 5 at 285) and junior Micaiah Montalbin (No. 9 at 132) are each also seeded for the Huskies.
Medina defeated Arcata’s Maximus Rice for the 285-pound H-DNL title in triple overtime last weekend.
Rice, a senior who will play football at Azusa Pacific next year, is seeded No. 7 for the NCS meet.
His Arcata teammate Josh Hannan is also seeded, capping a fantastic freshman season.
Hannan, who is 23-6 this winter, is No. 8 at 113 pounds.
McKinleyville senior Skyler Hicks, who is 25-4 on the season, is No. 6 at 182.
The H-DNL also will be well represented at the girls meet, with 32 local grapplers making the trip.
For Eureka, Sarah Grow (116), Slate Delsman (121), Yarelli Rendon-Gomez (131), Kelli Johnston (143), Maizie Fugate (150), Helena Rogers (170) and Aracely Rendon-Gomez (189) each won an individual championship at last weekend’s league championships and will advance.
Likewise with Del Norte’s Emilia Thompson (101), Savannah Williams (106), Avary Wiley (111), Emily Ricks (126), Adenne Schaad (137), and Danika Scott (235), as well as Fortuna’s Lonna Torrez at 160.
