WINNEMUCCA - When the calendar hits the end of December and the beginning of January, the action starts to heat up for the Lowry High School wrestling team in a big way.
The Buckaroos were on the road last weekend for the Reno Tournament of Champions, which is considered one of the toughest in the Untied States. Lowry finished 28th as a team with 77 points. There were more than 110 teams from across the country that participated.
Poway (San Diego, Calif.) won the tournament with 211 points, Pleasant Grove (Utah) was second with 196.50 points. Centennial (Idaho) was third with 174 points, Mountain View (Ariz.) was fourth at 155 and Crook County (Ore.) was fifth with 147.50 points. Green Valley was the high Nevada finisher at 11th with 122 points.
"I felt we did a good job," said LHS head coach John Brooks. "This is the time of the year where you get into some tough tournaments. We started off slow by losing a bunch of matches, but battled back. I was hoping to get a few more wins, but to have three guys in the top eight - that is a nice accomplishment."
Beau Billingsley at 170 pounds and Luis Cardenas (285) each finished fourth, one spot out of being named an All-American. Tytin Johnson (195) finished eighth.
Billingsley won his first three matches to reach the championship quarterfinals. The junior knocked off Ian Rand of Hood River Valley in his opening match by pin in the second period. Billingsley recorded a 9-1 victory over Cole Tigert of Vacaville in round two and a 7-1 win over Chris Bailey in the third round.
Billingsley dropped to the consolation bracket with a loss to Trey Ronayne of Basha in the quarterfinals. He bounced back to win three matches in the consolation bracket, including a pin over Xavier Horton of Eagle River, and decisions over Vicente Guerrero of Cibola and Kieffer Taylor of Mountain View. Billingsley matched up with Ronayne again in the third-place match and lost by pin.
Cardenas also made his way to the championship semifinals with four consecutive wins to start off the tournament. He won his first two bouts by pin over Nathan Hintze of Stansbury and Alexis Garcia of Mountain View. The junior reached the quarterfinals with a 4-3 victory over Mitch Chism of Pomona and went on to beat Stephen L'Hureux of West Jordan 3-0.
Cardenas lost 5-2 to Chance Eskam of Carlsbad in the semifinals, but bounced back to beat Brackin Stringham of Lehi in the consolation semifinals. In the third-place match, Tyler Stilwell of Yukon scored two late points to knock off Cardenas.
Johnson reached the championship quarterfinals with wins over Domenic Alves of Orland, Easton Brown of Stansbury and Rory Anderson of Damonte Ranch.
The senior lost by pin to Tevis Barlett of Cheyenne East in the quarterfinals, but he came back to beat Phoenix Hollen of Mountain View in the consolation bracket. Johnson would drop his last two matches, losing to Harley DiLulo of Meridian and Brik Chesley of Spanish Springs.
"To get that far in the tournament, you have to be wrestling good," Brooks said. "There are some tough kids in those weight classes. We had two guys that were a match away from being All-Americans."
Eric Brooks was an extra wrestler at 138 pounds but did not score any points for the Buckaroos. After receiving a bye in the first round, the senior pinned John Alba of Ceres. Brooks then lost to Sergio Enloe of Poway 6-2 in the third round of the championship bracket.
Brooks came back through the consolation bracket to beat Ulisses Lopez of Sunnyside and Hayden Bates of Crook County. The tournament came to an end for Brooks with a loss to Kraig Hammond of South Anchorage.
"We had Eric and Aaron (Nelson) in the weight class," said the coach. "It just came down to where they were seeded in the bracket. Aaron was 10th and Eric 12th and Eric got a bit of a better draw."
Brandon Okuma (152) reached the third round of the championship bracket and picked up three wins in the consolation bracket before falling to Elijah Brown of Easton. Trase Bell (106), Kevin Blanco (120) and Gabe Molina (132) all picked up wins for the Buckaroos over the weekend.
Lowry is back in Reno this weekend for the Sierra Nevada Classic. Action begins at 9 a.m. today and Saturday.
Around 80 teams from around the west will take part in the long-running tournament.
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