Hundreds of high school wrestlers descended on the Windsor High School gymnasium on Jan. 18 at the 20th King of the Mat Tournament hosted by the Jaguars.
The meet, which included 21 participating teams and an estimated 200 wrestlers, was back after a one year hiatus and went off without a hitch with the help of dozens of volunteers who manned the snack bar and scoring tables.
The meet featured several Sonoma County teams including Windsor, Healdsburg, Elsie Allen, Casa Grande, Petaluma, Elsie Allen and Montgomery, along with several top programs from Northern California and Nevada.
Tournament champion Spanish Springs of Nevada fielded a pair of teams, with its “A” squad capturing first (272 points) and the “B” squad finishing fourth (104) place overall. Also in the top six were Liberty (127), Redwood (119), Bret Harte (92) and Casa Grande (71).
Windsor finished in eighth place overall, with a team score of 66.5 points.
The Jaguars were led by 162-pound senior Trent Silva, who defeated Anthony Bonafacio of Jesse Bethel High School in the finals to claim a first-place medal and secure the Outstanding Middleweight trophy. Also making his way into the finals to earn a second place medal was 115-pound Jon Fredrickson.
On Friday, Windsor played host to a dozen JV teams at the annual Prince of the Mat Tournament (no results available).
Jags take down Greyhounds
Windsor began a busy week on Jan. 15 in an NBL dual meet with visiting Healdsburg, easily best the Greyhounds, 46-21. Scoring individual wins for the Jags were106-pound Kayden Winn (by forfeit), 113-pound Dominik Mertens (by 9-4 decision), 120-pound Isaiah Rubio (by 10-2 major decision),126-pound Jon Fredrickson (by fall), 138-pound Kaeden Timmins (by 4-2 decision), 170-pound Trent Silva (by fall), 182-pound Maribel Apineru (by forfeit), 195-pound Rebekkah Westmorland (by forfeit) and 285-pound Gabe Schuyler (by forfeit).
Ladies claim tourney medals
The WHS girls wrestling team enjoyed a great day at an all girls tournament hosted by Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo on Jan. 18. Although several wrestlers took the day off to assist at the King of the Mat tourney, Windsor athletes still managed to take home four medals.
Earning tournament hardware were first-year senior wrestler Ellery Charleton (2-1, 2nd place), junior Destinee Groves (3-1, 3rd place), junior Maribel Apineru (3-1, 7th place) and sophomore Rebekkah Westmoreland (3-2, 4th place).
“It’s exciting to see them execute their game plan,” WHS coach Rich Dixon said of his team. “It’s one thing to have a game plan, but to create that opportunity and make it happen during the match is the real deal.”
Next up for the Jaguars is a dual meet with visiting Santa Rosa on Thursday, Jan. 30 (6 p.m.). The Lady Jags will host 40 teams and 250 athletes at the Goddess of the Vine girls tournament on Saturday, Feb. 1
