A teenage driver killed in a crash near Sonoma has been identified as a high school senior from Fairfield and a state champion gymnast on a Petaluma team.
Wesley S. Nygren "was the top level, competing with the college level, the elite," said Bogi Michovsky, his coach at Redwood Empire Gymnastics in Petaluma.
"He was applying to UCLA, Stanford and the University of California San Diego," Michovsky said. "
They were trying to open a new program at UCLA and a recruiter came here."
Nygren, 17, was driving to Petaluma for practice, with his father as a passenger, when the crash occurred.
His father, John E. Nygren, 37, suffered major injuries in the crash and was in cr
itical condition Friday at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
The CHP said the accident, which occurred in the rain on a wet Highway 121 at Highway 12 in Schellville, still is being investigated.
The accident occurred at 5:05 p.m. Thursday when a pickup being driven by Jeremiah J. Garcia, 21, of Rio Linda, clipped the back of a van being driven by Monica Head, 35, of Vallejo.
Head's van had slowed and was pulling into a left-turn lane to Highway 12.
Garcia's pickup went out of control and spun into the path of the Nygren car, according to CHP officers.
