Marin County's Boys Make Their Mark at 2026 NCS Wrestling Tournament
Marin County put its strength on full display at this year's North Coast Section wrestling tournament, sending ten athletes to one of the most competitive postseason fields in California prep sports.
The scale of that achievement is worth pausing on. In the North Coast Section, roughly 150 schools compete across the region. Only 24 athletes per weight class earn a spot in the NCS tournament — and unlike many sports, wrestling offers no divisional split. Every athlete in a weight class competes on the same bracket, regardless of school size. Placing at the NCS tournament, statistically, is more difficult than winning a state title in most other states. Just getting there means something.
In the inaugural year of the new Divisional Tournament format, MCAL programs qualified ten wrestlers to the boys bracket. Redwood's Rex Kohner (106) and Ayaan Naseer (113), Novato's Jiriah Vannasy (120), Tam's Cole Mapp (165), San Marin's AJ Conkey (190), and Archie Williams' Rainer Grabenkort (126) all competed with distinction. Kohner, Naseer, Vannasy, Mapp, and Conkey each went 2-2. Grabenkort went 1-2.
Four MCAL wrestlers placed in the tournament — Novato's Braeden Carroll (285), Redwood's Dylan Morton (132), and Tam High's Dylan Hayes (215) and Dylan Van Doren (150). None punched a ticket to the state tournament, which requires a top-two finish, but placing in the top eight at NCS demands an uncommon level of grit, endurance, and mental toughness. These four demonstrated all of it.
Dylan Van Doren, Tam High — 7th Place (150)
Dylan Van Doren's NCS run was the kind that tests what a wrestler is truly made of.
The week before, at the Division 2 finals, Van Doren had been dispatched quickly by Remington Escobedo of Del Norte — a first-period pin that left little room for debate. When the two met again in the NCS quarterfinals, it was clear Van Doren had not forgotten.
Van Doren defeated Aiden Atteo of Maria Carillo in a wild, high scoring slugfest 27-11. That crazy win set up the rematch against Escobedo.
What unfolded was one of the more electrifying matches of the tournament. Van Doren got taken down and put to his back twice, almost pinned and quickly was down 10-0. But he didn't give up. Van Doren clawed and scrambled his way back into the match, mounting a wild comeback that gave him the lead 13-12 with just nine seconds left on the clock. In the end, a final takedown in the dying moments denied him a spot in the semifinals — but he had already shown the county what he was capable of.
Wrestling back on day two, Van Doren gutted out a hard-fought 10-5 win over Adrian Camargo of El Cerrito before being pinned by sophomore phenom Gunner Crook of Ukiah, one of the tournament's most dangerous wrestlers. In the seventh-place match, Van Doren was dominant, dismantling fourth-seed Jaydon Holland of Concord by tech fall, 19-4. It was a fitting final statement for a senior who competed with everything he had.
Dylan Morton, Redwood — 4th Place (132)
Dylan Morton came into the NCS tournament seeded fifth — a curious number for a wrestler who had placed sixth at the same tournament a year ago and spent the season establishing himself as one of the county's most reliable 132-pounders. What followed was a performance that made the seeding look like an afterthought.
Morton opened with a clean 7-0 decision over Amari Mirlohi of Benicia, then ran headlong into the tournament's defining obstacle: Leesayo Sanchez of Windsor. Sanchez had beaten Morton 11-1 just the week before at the Redwood Empire Divisional Tournament. In the NCS quarterfinals, Morton closed the gap significantly — he was up 2-1 heading into the third period before Sanchez escaped, got the takedown, and closed it out 6-2. It was a deflating moment, but Morton didn't stay deflated long.
Wrestling back, Morton was relentless. He defeated Jaxon Ziehn of Miramonte 4-1 in a grinding match, then rolled through Vincent Ramirez of Liberty 16-3, and closed out a 7-0 win over Yousuf Amin of Dublin with two clutch end-of-period takedowns. The run earned him a spot in the consolation finals — where Sanchez was waiting again. Morton fell for the third time in two weeks, finishing fourth. It was a promising and hard-won result for one of Redwood's best, and a foundation to build on.
Dylan Hayes, Tam High — 5th Place (215)
Dylan Hayes arrived at NCS seeded tenth. He left having reminded everyone why tournament seedings tell only part of the story.
Hayes came out hot, pinning Northgate's Joseph Bunik in the first period, then following it up with another first-period fall over seventh-seed Jack Schwabenland. The quarterfinals brought a tougher draw in Jordan Schwarm of Ukiah, an eventual finalist, who took the match after Hayes was called for stalling three times.
The blood rounds on day two were where Hayes announced himself. He pinned Soushians Bahramifar of Campolindo in a physical, closely contested match to stay alive. In the consolation quarterfinals against third-seed Santino Servier of Amador Valley, Hayes found himself taken down and ridden — the match slipping away — until he reversed the momentum with a second-period takedown and got the fall. It was one of the tournament's more stunning turnarounds.
In the consolation semifinals, Hayes was in control of his match against Isaac Garcia at James Logan — Garcia's home gym — until he was caught in a granby roll, taken to his back, and pinned. It was a hard exit. Hayes had sought a rematch with Donald Glenn of Willits in the fifth-place match, a wrestler who had beaten him earlier in the season, but Glenn suffered a serious shoulder injury and was forced to forfeit. Hayes placed fifth — a significant result for a junior who has clearly not yet reached his ceiling.
Braeden Carroll, Novato — 4th Place (285)
Few wrestlers in MCAL history have carried the expectations that followed Braeden Carroll into every room he entered. A state qualifier as a sophomore, Carroll spent three years as the dominant force at heavyweight in Marin County — a physical presence and a competitor who raised the standard for everyone around him.
His junior season ended in the cruelest way possible. Carroll reached the NCS true second-place match, one win away from returning to the state tournament, and lost a heartbreaker that denied him what had seemed like a near-certain berth. It was the kind of loss that defines how a wrestler responds in his final season.
Carroll came back this year as the tournament's top seed at 285, the target on his back as large as his reputation. He handled the pressure efficiently in the early rounds, beating Dean Tahsler of Napa 8-0 before dispatching eighth-seed Luke Debenning of Granada 7-0 in the quarterfinals. A state return was coming into focus.
Then the semifinals. Trailing Celzo by a single point late in the match, Carroll fought to escape from the bottom — one successful stand-up and he ties it, and suddenly everything is possible again. But Celzo caught him in the process, turning Carroll to his back for a four-point near-fall that ended any hope of a comeback. The margin that felt so closeable became insurmountable in a single scramble. It was the kind of moment every wrestler dreads — undone not by being outclassed, but by coming agonizingly close and having it slip away anyway.
Wrestling back, Carroll defeated Wallace Moa of Tennyson 3-0 to stay alive, before being pinned by George Tyus of Antioch Senior, finishing fourth. It was not the ending anyone expected for a wrestler of his caliber, and the sting of it is real.
But the full measure of Braeden Carroll's career cannot be reduced to a single match or a single tournament. He arrived at Novato as a prospect and leaves as the standard-bearer — the wrestler every MCAL heavyweight for the next decade will be measured against. His technical development, his consistency, and his presence transformed heavyweight wrestling in this county. Whatever comes next for Carroll, the legacy he built on the mat in Marin is already secure.
