Coming off the Reno Tournament of Champions, Lowry High School wrestling coach John Brooks was not happy with where the conditioning of his team was.
Even though the Buckaroos placed 29th at that tournament, Brooks though the squad had a few matches get away from them that they shouldn't have.
While others were enjoying their Christmas break, Lowry was back on the wrestling mat, getting ready for the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno on Monday, Dec. 29 and Tuesday, Dec. 30.
The Buckaroos flipped the switch in practice and turned in a fifth-place finish at the 85-team event with 142.50 points. Del Oro (Calif.) won with 228 points, while Folsom (Calif.) was second at 217.50. Servite (217.50) and Oakdale (192.50), both California schools, were fourth and fifth, respectively. Lowry was the highest finishing Nevada school. Reno placed eighth, Carson was ninth and Shadow Ridge (Las Vegas) placed 10th.
"I was pleased with how we came out and wrestled," said Brooks. "The tournament was down a little, but we still won some close matches. Our conditioning was much better. We had eight guys make it to the second day and our older guys came through for us."
Lowry had three wrestlers finish in the top six. Beau Billingsley led the Buckaroos with a first-place finish at 182 pounds. The senior had finished second in the last two Sierra Nevasda Classics.
Billingsley won his first two matches by pin over Saul Gutierrez of McQueen and Connor Sievens of Carson. The three-time state champion met up with Calaveras' Ayden Garcia 14-2.
Billingsley needed to go to overtime to beat Chasen Blair of Rancho Bernardo to win 2-1. In the semifinals, Billingsley recorded a 5-3 win over Michael Vazquez of Servite and in the championship, Billingsley led from the start and defeated Lowell's Tanner Harvey 7-3.
"Beau looked really good," Brooks said. "He had some tough kids, but got the job done. It was good for him to win, after finishing second the last two years."
Luis Cardenas (285) was second on the weekend, winning his first three matches by pin, all in the first period. The senior disposed of Buhach Colony's Oscar Curiel, Redmond's Jacob Braucher and Central Valley's Isaad DeLa Cruz.
It got tougher for Cardenas, starting in the quarterfinals, with a 1-0 win over Elijah Juvera of Modesto Christian. Cardenas won another 1-0 battle in the semifinals over Saul Mensese of Delo oro. In the championship, Cardenas was leading, but got caught by Jacob Minshew of Casa Roble and lost by pin.
"He looked good," said the coach. "Luis was leading the match, but just got caught. The kid he wrestled was big and strong. He was every bit of 285 pounds and over 6 feet tall."
Gabe Molina (132) was sixth on the weekend and reached the championship quarterfinals. The senior earned wins by pin in his first two matches over Nathaniel Washington of Shadow Ridge and Anthony Pacheco of Palma.
Molina collected his third consecutive victory with an 8-4 decision over Wolfgang Bernal of Servite. Molina dropped to the consolation bracket with a loss to Josh Villafor of Franklin, but bounced back to beat Uziel D'Mattus of Shadow Ridge and Josh Connor of Lowell.
However, Molina dropped his final two matches to Kenny Jones of Lassen and Angelo Uribe of Granite Bay.
"Gabe had a lot of matches," said the coach. "I still like thew way he is wrestling. You get in to those last couple rounds and the competition gets tough."
Trase Bell (120) reached the sixth round of the consolation bracket. Bell earned decision wins against Christian Robledo of Millikan and Montana Puckett of McQueen in the first two rounds.
He lost a 7-5 decision to Sanger's Ruben Gonzalez in round three in the championship bracket, but came back to win twice in the consolation bracket.
Nate Nelson (138) also made his way to the sixth round of the consolation bracket. He had to wrestle in the preliminaries to get in to round one and won 5-2 over Jayricho Nglam of Grace Davis. The senior defeated Matthew McCain of Redmiond 6-4 and Kyle Pugh of San Clemente) by pin to reach the third round of the championships.
He lost to Damonte Ranch's Michael Solferino, but came back to get two more wins.
Shaun Mentaberry (160), Anthony Hummel (195) and Blake Hillyer (220) each made it to the fifth round of the consolation bracket. Hummel and Hillyer advanced to the third round of championship wrestling, before suffering their first loss. Mentaberry lost in the second round of championships, before coming back to win three times in the consolation rounds.
Kevin Blanco (126) collected three wins and reached the fourth round in the consolation rounds, while Nathen Blanco (113), Quint Bell (126), Blake Duncan (152) and Tristen Waller (170) each picked up victories.
Lowry hosts Pershing County on Wednesday at 5 p.m. and travel to Minden on Saturday for the Douglas Invitational.
"This is where we make our push to get better," Brooks said. "This out turning point. There isn't much time left in the season. We still have to get better and we have won nothing yet."[[In-content Ad]]
