File photo – Joshua Hannan

A memorable high school wrestling season came to an end on Saturday with another strong showing by the H-DN at the CIF state championships in Bakersfield.

Fresh off his second straight North Coast Section championship a week ago, Arcata senior Joshua Hannan had the best showing among the league’s wrestlers and finished fifth at 132 pounds.

Hoopa senior Gerard Marshall also had a good showing in the heavyweight division and placed in the top 12 for the second straight year.

Like Hannan, Marshall won his way to the quarterfinals, before dropping two straight matches in the consolation bracket.

Marshall also is a two-time section champion.

Hannan won his fifth-place match with a forfeit after his opponent was forced to pull out through injury.

“He wrestled great,” Arcata head coach Cass Bell said of Hannan. “He was on point. He wrestled his heart out.”

The quarterfinal loss came against the No. 2 seed in the state, Daniel Zepeda out of Gilroy, with the Arcata senior leading late in the match before his opponent came back to win.

“It was so close,” Bell said. “It was such a good match. Just 10 more seconds and he would have won, but he wrestled excellent. I was so proud of him.”

Marshall also closed out his high school career with a strong showing and placed in the top 12 in his bracket in state for the second straight year.

Five other H-DN wrestlers also qualified for the prestigious three-day state tournament.

Fortuna’s Mason Evanow had an impressive tournament and opened with a big win over the No. 11 seed in the 120-pound bracket, Leo Maestas out of Clovis West.

The Fortuna junior finished the tournament 1-2.

File photo – Gerard Marshall

Evanow’s teammates Chloe Cox and Lindsay Bibby each also qualified for the girls state championships, and both went 0-2.

Qualifying for what is one of the most competitive high school tournaments in the nation is a huge achievement on its own for any H-DN grappler, and particularly for Bibby, who has only been wrestling for two seasons.

“Making it to the state tournament in her second year wrestling is pretty impressive,” Fortuna head coach Steven Stockdale said of the senior standout. “All things considered, she performed well throughout the season. Making it this far and finishing in the top 32 in all of California is pretty impressive.”

Cox and Evanow are both juniors and should benefit from the experience.

“For Chloe and Mason, I think it was a good eye opener,” said Stockdale, who had more wrestlers qualify for the state tournament than any other H-DN program. “The competition is what they needed to grow.”

Both Evanow and Cox will be expected to continue to improve next season.

Likewise with St. Bernard’s Rory Bickmore, who qualified for the state tournament after a third-place finish at last weekend’s NCS championships.

Bickmore had the highest placing of any local girl at the section tournament and finished 0-2 this weekend.

Rounding out the H-DN contingent at the state meet, Arcata’s Dakota Sanders finished 1-2 in the 113-pound bracket.

Sanders was wrestling for the first time at the high school level this season and enjoyed a big winter on the mats, placing second at the NCS championships.

“For his first year wrestling in high school, to go all the way to state is pretty amazing,” Bell said. “He put in a lot of hard work this year.”

One other local wrestler also enjoyed a big three days at the state championships.

Freshman Thunder Lewis, who honed his talents while competing in the Del Norte youth program before this family moved out of the area, also won his way to the quarterfinals.

Lewis, who now wrestles for Clovis High, was seeded No. 3 for the tournament and placed fourth overall after battling his way back through the consolation bracket.