Chico grabs 14th straight Northern Section title

The Corning girls edge Panthers in pre-Masters meet

With eight champions in 14 weight classes, Chico High won its 14th straight Northern Section Division I boys wrestling championship Saturday at Red Bluff High School.

The Panthers were the only team to qualify for the Master meet in all weights. Chico High will host the first NSCIF Masters combining boys and girls Friday and Saturday (Feb. 17-18).

Chico finished first with 267 points — 98 more than runnerup Corning, which edged the Panthers in the girls competition. Las Plumas' boys placed third with 162.5 points, followed by Foothill with 144, Red Bluff with 116 and Pleasant Valley with 106.5. Oroville placed 10th with 24 points.

Panthers wrestlers Johny Navarrete (115), Jeovany Navarrete (122), Jacob Foster (128), David Rudkin (140), Gavin Smith (147), Jack Dalling (162), Ryan Clink (172) and Bradlee Shaw all placed first. Tej Sidhu (108) finished second, Andrew Rechs (154) third, Alex Yerena (197) fourth, Garrett Purser (287) fifth and Logan Treanor (222) sixth.

In the girls division, Chico earned 130 points to finish 10 points behind team champion Corning. Pleasant Valley took third place with 109 points, 38 ahead of Red Bluff.

Makenzie Shaw (123), Aliyhana Hernandez (133) and Midasia Wathen (152) recorded first-place finishes for Chico, while Kim Navarrete (103), Grace Pizzuto (128), Nereyda Bill (162), and Lanie Eden-Zamarron (172) took second place.

NSCIF Masters starts noon Friday with boys only. The girls competition will begin 10 a.m. Saturday, with both boys and girls finals set to begin at 4:30 p.m. The top two boys finishers at each weight and the champions for girls will qualify for the CIF State meet in Bakersfield next week.