LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Saturday, Feb. 18, the Clear Lake Cardinals hosted this year’s Boy’s Coastal Mountain Conference (CMC) Championship Wrestling Tournament.

The top three placers in each weight division advance to the Boy’s North Coast Sections (NCS) Championships.

The Cardinals entered three wrestlers into the CMC tournament and one advanced.

Ozod Ermatov (138 lbs.) won the bronze medal and the chance to advance to the NSC tournament on Feb. 24.

A senior, first year wrestler and foreign exchange student, Ermatov gave it everything he had.

In his first match he would fall to the No. 1 seed, eventual champion and outstanding middleweight wrestler from Kelseyville.

Then, Ermatov would come back in a hard-fought decision battle to beat the No. 3 seed from Willits and win the bronze medal.

Frankie Sturr (126 lbs.), another senior and first-year wrestler, won fourth place, just short of advancing to the NCS tournament.

Sturr had some tough matches along the way and some very questionable calls, but he fought to the end of each match.

First up Sturr would fall to the No. 2 seed from Willits. After having him flat on his back, it was not to go Sturr’s way.

Still bound and determined even after injuring his knee in the previous match, Sturr continued on to pin his next opponent from Kelseyville, in another physical match.  Then, in one more exciting battle, Sturr would fall to the eventual bronze medalist from Lower Lake.  

After missing his weight, Freshman Thomas Lairson decided to wrestle up at (132 lbs.). He gave it all he had, but was just too much to overcome.