State wrestling meet: Upper Lake siblings among Empire hopefuls

When it comes to the annual CIF state wrestling championships, it's not often that teammates can say they're genuinely family - but that is the case for the Upper Lake wrestling team, whose coach and two athletes battling for titles this weekend are a father-son-and-daughter trio aiming to better their results from last year.

Coach Joe Fernandez, his son Junior and daughter Adriana Lopez are all at this year's state meet at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, and the siblings battled through to the quarterfinals for the second straight year - with both determined to win a championship on Saturday.

Junior, the No. 5 seed at 132 pounds, collected a pin victory in his first match and a 13-5 victory in his second to continue on and will face No. 4 seed Henry Porter of Oakdale on Friday.

Lopez, the No. 3 seed at 121 pounds who finished third in the state last year, recorded a second-round pin in her first match and a 13-5 win in the second.

“This is the first time we've all been together (at state) and it's a true blessing,” the elder Fernandez said. “We've all worked so hard together, our whole family has, so it's really special for us.”

Lopez is one of the first two athletes in school history to place at state, along with Christina Wilson, who did so at the 2017 championships. No Upper Lake boy has ever earned a medal at state, according to records dating back to 1973. The historic nature of his athletes' recent success hasn't been lost on Coach Fernandez.

“To show people that if a little tiny school like ours can, anybody can do it,” he said. “If the kids are willing to do hard work and believe in the program, anybody can do it. We're truly blessed because we have a community that really supports our kids and truly believes in them. It's been a dream of mine to be able to do it for our school.”

The younger Fernandez has had to sit out most of the season with an injury, so he is more determined than ever to push through to the medal round. He fell just short of collecting one last season.

“That's really just haunted me (the injury), and that's why I wanted to get this victory really bad and come back to win a state title, to prove I am the best in the state because I didn't have half of a season to show that to the rest of the state,” Junior said.

Her dad thought efforts to make the weight cut earlier in the day may have been slightly tough at first for Lopez, but she rebounded quickly - her brother helped her warm up for the match, too.

“I got a super good warmup in with Junior,” Lopez said. “I got a good sweat going. I just felt really good going into today, super hyped, ready to win a title this season.”

Three other girls and another boy from Redwood Empire schools advanced to the tournament's quarterfinal round with victories on Thursday.

A highlight was Kelseyville's Jasmin Clarke, who defeated the No. 2 seed in her second match at 189 pounds to advance.

Casa Grande's Lillian McCoy, at 235, also moved on to Day 2 with two pin victories. Maria Carrillo's Samantha Utter at 143 and El Molino's Hannah Ricioli at 150 also advanced. The solo Sonoma County boy to advance, Windsor's Blake Frederickson, at 113, went 3-0 on Day 1 and will face the No. 1 seed on Friday.

The quarterfinals start at 3 p.m. on Friday. The top eight wrestlers in each weight division will earn medals on the final day of competition Saturday.

The following wrestlers dropped into the consolation bracket after being defeated Thursday, but most can still rise as high as third place:

Boys

Trent Silva, Windsor, 145

Connor Pedersen, Petaluma, 152

Alex Garcia, Kelseyville, 160

Justin Naugle, Casa Grande, 195

Franke Pomilia, Ukiah, 220

Girls

Brooklyn Shattuck, Petaluma, 101

Carmen Perez, Windsor, 106

Dulce Chavez, Windsor, 116

Arora Viera, Casa Grande, 143

Hollie Espinoza, Rancho Cotate, 189

Ruby Joseph, Cardinal Newman, 189