FUCHS EXITS IN STYLE AT LLHS
Trojans place second in Battle of the Buttes, Gudino, Vilmenay, Ambriz dominate weight classes
YUBA CITY >> Lower Lake High School’s full wrestling team made its season debut Saturday with a second-place finish in the Battle of the Buttes at Yuba City.
The Trojans amassed 162 points to finish just nine behind winner River City (171). River Valley came in third with 134.5. All three teams received trophies.
Lower Lake wrestlers Bryan Gudino (113 pounds), Quintin Vilmenay (132) and Gabriel Ambriz (138) all went undefeated in their weight classes. Along with those three first-place medals, Jayden Roath (126) and Dominick Perez (145) added secondplace medals.
Other top finishers were David May, fourth at 160 pounds, and Zakai Vilmenay, fifth at 120 pounds.
“Overall what a way to go out!” said Lower Lake High School head coach Ed Fuchs in his final appearance with the Trojans. Fuchs, Lower Lake’s head coach for 15 seasons, is moving to Wisconsin at the end of the week.
“The team really fought hard all day long,” Fuchs said. “River City and Lower Lake changed leads for first place (in the team standings) about five times throughout the day. In the end River City’s 11 wrestlers were able to outlast our nine. I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of Lower Lakes’ wrestling program.”
Gudino, the fourth seed at 113 pounds, went 3-0 with one pin and two tech falls and wasn’t
scored upon during the tournament. He beat the tournament’s top two seeds by technical fall.
“He said he felt rust since it was his first matches all year, but he looked great,” Fuchs said.
Quintin Vilmenay, the No. 5 seed, won all four of his matches by pin.
“He had an absolutely amazing weekend,” Fuchs said. “That’s the best I have seen Quintin wrestle. His takedowns were next level. I was very surprised that he was not a MVP (voted on by the referees).”
Ambriz also went 4-0 with four pins.
“He was right there after Quintin,” Fuchs said. “He was smooth like water flowing. (Former) coach Jim Taylor used to always say, ‘Be like water,’ and he did exactly that while dominating his opponents.”
Ambriz racked up 12 takedowns during the tournaemnt.
Roath went 3-1 with two pins and another win by decision. He lost to the No. 2 seed by pin in the finals.
“The most composed I have seen Jayden wrestle,” Fuchs said.
Perez went 4-1 after starting the tournament in an outbracket.
“They had a few out-bracket matches because the field had a lot of 145-pound wrestlers,” Fuchs said. “Dom had four pins. He ended up pinning his way into the finals with pins over the third and seventh seeds.”
Perez lost to the No. 1 seed in the finals by second-round pin.
“He looked great during his long day. Five matches is the max a wrestler can compete in during one day on the mats,” Fuchs said.
May, the fourth seed, went 1-2 at 160 pounds with a pin.
“David battled some tough older wrestlers,” Fuchs said. “He never stopped fighting.”
Zakai Vilmenay, the sixth seed at 120 pounds, went 4-1 on the day, including two pins. His only loss came in the quarterfinals to the No. 3 seed, who finished
third.
“He was so cool to watch,” Fuchs said. “He battled back and finished as high as he could. True grit.”
Lower Lake’s wrestlers are off until the annual Dennis Jensen Tournament in Middletown and the Joe Rios Tournament in Chico Jan. 7-8.