WINNEMUCCA - You can add another name to the list of All-Americans for the Lowry High School wrestling team.
Cody Andersen, who just saw action in two matches in the first two weeks of the season due to ACT and SAT exams, claimed a second-place finish at 220 pounds at the Reno Tournament of Champions.
The event featured nearly 120 teams and is considered one of the toughest in the Untied States. As a team, the Buckaroos finished 24th as a team, with 77 points.
"Not bad to have another All-American," said LHS head coach John Brooks. "He had a pretty impressive run. He had not seen that much wrestling time this year. He just went out there and did his thing. He got some good matchups but beat a pretty good kid. The kid he beat in the semifinals was supposedly ranked No. 9 in the nation."
Cannon-McMillan, out of Pennsylvania, won the team championship with 225.50 points. Poway (Oklahoma) was second with 221.5 points and Maple Mountain (Utah) finished third at 173.50.
Green Valley, out of Las Vegas, was the highest finishing Nevada team in fifth with 158 points. Churchill County was 27th, and Spring Creek placed 39th. Battle Mountain was 59th with 33 points.
"Team wise there were a few shining spots," Brooks said. "I thought Daniel (Pollock) wrestled well after losing his first match. Beau (Billingsley) looked good but he was in a brutal weight class. The top kids wrestled well, but we had about five or six kids that didn't score at all. That is something we have to fix. If there was something I didn't like it was that. We need kids scoring."
Andersen came into the tournament as the No. 6 seed and beat Turlock's Ricky Flores by pin in the second period. The senior cruised in his second-round bout, beating McKay Huber of Mountain View in 76 seconds.
In the round of 16, Andersen picked up his third victory by fall, beating Tyler Kailiuli of Roseburg. Andersen continued his winning ways in the quarterfinals with a fall victory over Saratoga's Graham Grant with 33 seconds left in the match.
Andersen made his way to the finals with a win over Cannon-McMillan's Alex Campbell by pin, 11 seconds into the second period. In the finals, Andersen was defeated by Reed's Spencer Empey.
Pollock (106) lost his first-round match to Manny Lair of Poway B, but battled back to win twice in the consolation bracket. The senior beat Xavier Cardenas of Grandview and Jaylon Bates of Liberty, before getting knocked out by Evan Fidelibus of Easton.
Eric Brooks (120) went 1-2 in the tournament, with a win over Redwood's Darrison Harris in the consolation round. Gabe Molina (126) earned a first-round victory over Yerington's David Vincent. Molina lost in the championship round of 32, but picked up one win in the consolation round.
Aaron Nelson (132) lost in the opening round, only to bounce back in the consolation round. He beat Reed's Brady Wood by pin and Spring Creek's Layton Perry by a 4-1 decision. Perry won the 132-pound Division I-A state championship last year.
Lane Mentaberry (138) reached the round of 32 after receiving a bye in the first round and defeating Sergio Enloe of Poway B.
Brandon Okuma made his way into the round of 16 with wins over Jared Temple of Green Valley B and George Smirnoff. Okuma was eliminated after losing his first match in the consolation bracket.
Billingsley (152) was victorious in his first two matches, beating Box Elder's Matt Williams and Elijah Rogers of Galena. Billingsley lost to Centennial's Kris McFarlane in the round of 32, but bounced back with two wins in the consolation bracket before bowing out to Matt Filbert of Ironwood Ridge.
Alec Mayo (160), Donovan Brumm (170) and Jed Johnson (182) lost both of their matches that they competed in.
Luis Cardenas (285) dropped his opening match of the tournament, but came back to beat Eagle's Matt Bishop and Mountain View's Josh Munger in the consolation round.
"I felt the tournament was tougher than it was last year," Brooks said. "We have to get a lot better and this tournament will bring out your weaknesses. We will see where we are at after the month of wrestling we will go through."
Lowry will be at home for one of the rare times this season as it hosts the Cody Louk Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Winnemucca Event Center. Action gets under way at 3 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday. The Buckaroo Wrestling Club will also be holding signups on Friday from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
"There should be some good wrestling this weekend," Brooks said. Our tournament had been on the same weekend as the Tournament of Champions for the past couple of years. We have some nice teams coming in and it should be a good tournament."
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