ANDERSON, Calif. — Crater didn’t waste any time in taking control at the NorCal “Beast in the North” wrestling tournament Friday, advancing an impressive eight wrestlers into the semifinal round to end Day 1 in first place in the team standings.

As good as those efforts were, it could have even been better for the Comets, who saw four wrestlers come up short in their quarterfinal matches.

“Some of our kids wrestled really well today,” said Crater head coach Greg Haga. “I think everybody did a pretty good job, and just about all our other guys (who didn’t advance to the semis) are still alive on the consolation. I thought we were just consistent and wrestling tough today.”

Earning spots in today’s semifinals were Elijah Bayne (113 pounds), Wren Rambo (120), Ryan McCarty (126), Ty Havniear (138), Matthew Bolanos (152), Brayden Gray (160), Braiden Tester (170) and Gabriel Williams (220).

Ayden Tazioli (145), Ryan Hill (145), Reagan Gowen (220) and Justin Brehm (285) also advanced as far as the quarterfinal round of the championship bracket before suffering their first losses of the tourney.

As a team, the Comets amassed 142 points to build a 38-point cushion on second-place University Prep (104). Del Norte (79), Foothill (77.5) and Corning Union (69) rounded out the top-5 teams in a 26-school event featuring predominantly California high school programs.

“I’m not really into the team scores right now,” said Haga, “I’m into how we’re wrestling. My goal is that we come in and wrestle tough tomorrow as the competition stiffens up, and we continue to get a little tougher and wrestle a little more intense.”