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Sonoma SCL champ, 10 earn NCS

Serafini, Denning, Schimm, Amandoli, Lacy win titles

With seven reaching the finals, and five capturing weight-class titles, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity wrestlers dominated Saturday’s Sonoma County League championship tournament at El Molino in Forestville and claimed their first overall SCL crown in four years.

Led by individual champion co-captain seniors Giordi Serafini, Sam Denning, Aidan Lacy and junior Max Schimm, and senior Jonny Amandoli, along with second-place finishers junior Harris Meglen and freshman Dalton Elster, the Dragons completed their SCL title sweep by winning both the season duals and postseason tourney.

Sonoma – directed by head coach Kyle Baird and assistant coaches Deets Winslow and Ian Kruljak – seized Saturday’s league championship by outdistancing longtime rival Healdsburg by a 185-1/2 to 160-1/2 margin, while Analy settled for third-place with a score of 152.

Rounding out the seven-school SCL are Petaluma, El Molino, Piner and Elsie Allen.

Taking home third-place medals for the Dragons were senior Alex Ohan, junior Chris Lohnes and sophomore Jake Randuch, with senior Sebastian Amara and sophomore Jack Biaggi scoring with fourth-place finishes.

With their top-three SCL tourney weight class medal finishes, Sonoma’s Lacy, Serafini, Denning, Amandoli, Schimm, Meglen, Elster, Ohan, Lohnes and Randuch advance to the postseason’s prestigious North Coast Section championships, which take place at 9 a.m. this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22 and 23, in Newark.

Two SCL-champion Dragons have been seeded for this weekend’s challenging NCS event, with Lacy a second-seed at 222 pounds, and Serafini, who is a rare four-year NCS qualifier, a sixth-seed at 122.

In winning their SCL individual titles, Lacy had a 3-0 record with two pins, including his first-round pinning of Analy’s Kyle Gomber in the first-place match at 222 pounds; Serafini’s 3-0 with a hard-earned 5-3 first-place victory over Healdsburg’s Drew Esquivel at 122; Denning’s 3-0 with one pin, including a 9-3 first-place triumph over El Molino’s Eric Greieda at 128; Amandoli’s 3-0 with one pin, a second-round pinning of Piner’s Joe Christensen for first-place at 197; and Schimm’s 3-0 with a 10-3 first-place win over Healdsburg’s Jacob Sloma at 147

Sonoma’s SCL title-winning team performance was also led by Meglen’s 2-1 record and a second-place medal at 115 pounds; Elster’s 2-1 second with one pin and a second-place medal in the heavyweight division; Ohan’s 3-1 and a third-place medal at 172; Lohnes’ 3-1 with a pin and a third-place medal at 108; Randuch’s 3-1 with one pin and a third-place medal at 134; Amara’s 2-2 fourth at 162; Biaggi’s 2-2 fourth at 184; junior Tommy Jordan’s 0-2 at 140; and frosh Austin Beltran’s 0-2 at 154.

In the SCL junior varsity round-robin championships, three Dragons were top-three medalists, including frosh David Price’s first-place at 128 pounds, senior Peter Gray’s second-place at 122, and frosh Trevor Martinelli’s third-place at 108.