WINNEMUCCA - The Lowry High School wrestling program has proved to be one of the most dominating programs in the history of Nevada high school sports.
The Buckaroos recently won their state-record 15th state championship in February by over 100 points.
Over spring break, Lowry had two of its grapplers compete at the NHSCA National Wrestling Championships in Virginia Beach, Va. The top high school wrestlers converge on Virginia Beach every year for the competition. The event is broken up into classes, depending on the year that wrestler is in school.
Sophomore Beau Billingsley, who has won state championships in his first two years at Lowry, earned All-American honors with his fifth-place finish at 160 pounds.
"It was a pretty cool experience," Billingsley said. "It is a tough tournament. There was a kid from Virginia that won state and he didn't even place. It is a pretty tough tournament."
Billingsley won his first three matches of the tournament, starting with an 8-3 decision over Quinton Love of New Jersey. Billingsley needed just 99 seconds to pin New York's Nick Wentland. The sophomore followed that up with a 5-3 decision over Minnesota's Nathanael Holecek. Holecek finished third in his weight class at the Minnesota High School state championships.
Billingsley suffered his first loss of the tournament in a narrow 6-5 defeat to Benjamin Schram of Ohio. Schram went on to win the weight class.
In his next match, Billingsley lost another close decision, this time 5-2 to Andrew Doak of Pennsylvania. Doak wrestled in the 152-pound weight class at this year's Pennsylvania state championship. Doak was 38-4 this year.
Billingsley bounced back in his fifth-place bout to beat Richie Jones of New York by fall at 2:24.
"It is a different level of wrestling here," Billingsley said. "Every match is tough and every match is close. You see a lot of different wrestling styles on the East Coast. You find out what your strengths and weaknesses are."
Michael Billingsley, the older brother of Beau, went 2-2 during his stay in the senior division at 170 pounds. The senior recently became the second wrestler at Lowry to win four individual championships.
"I felt like I could have done better going 2-2, but I beat a Virginia state champion, which was nice," said Michael Billingsley. "I lost to some quality kids, but it was still good to go out and wrestle."
The senior opened with a 6-1 victory over Dustin Thibeault of Massachusetts. The older Billingsley lost 9-6 to Brandon Simon of New Jersey in his second bout, but bounced back to beat Virginia's Brett Stein by a 9-6 decision. In his final match, Billingsley lost 4-2 to Tyler Chay of Oregon. Chay finished second this year in the 6A state high school championships for West Linn High School.
Billingsley, who was recently named a top-10 student-athlete by the NIAA, will be attending the Air Force Academy this fall.
"Just about every single kid in the senior division is going to wrestle in college somewhere," Michael Billingsley said. "It was a good experience before I go to college."
[[In-content Ad]]
