WINNEMUCCA - The Lowry High School wrestling team continued its grind through a number of tournaments with a 10th place finish at the Sierra Nevada Classic last week in Reno.
The Buckaroos were the highest-finishing Nevada team with 119 points, despite missing two of their top wrestlers due to injury. Lowry beat out Spanish Springs, Reno and Damonte Ranch.
Henley (Klamath Falls, Ore.) won the tournament with 176 points and three individual champions. Oakdale, Calif., and Paso Robles, Calif., tied for second with 155 points each. Folsom, Calif., (140.5) and Crater, Ore., (135) rounded out the top five.
Beau Billingsley finished second for Lowry at 152 pounds, while Brandon Okuma (145) and Luis Cardenas (285) finished fourth.
"We wrestled pretty well," said LHS head coach John Brooks. "We were able to get more kids scoring and that was nice to see. The tournament was down a few teams due to the weather but there is still quality wrestling."
Billingsley entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed and had little trouble on his way to the semifinals. The sophomore won his first four matches by fall starting with Joe Villalovos of Casa Roble (Orangevale, Calif.). It took Billingsley just 86 seconds to dispose of Colby Williamson of Buhach Colony (Atwater, Calif.) in the second round.
Billingsley's match in the round of 16 went just two seconds longer as he pinned Daniel Best of Central Linn (Halsey, Ore.). In the quarterfinals, Billingsley beat Kjell Thorsen of Grants Pass, Ore., by pin the third period.
In his first match that went the distance, Billingsley beat Kaden Steingruber of Rocky Mountain (Meridian, Idaho). In the finals, Billingsley lost 10-5 to Kevan Garcia of Paso Robles.
"Beau is wrestling strong right now," Brooks said. "The win he got in the semifinals was a good one. He ran into a tough kid in the finals."
Okuma was slotted in as the No. 4 seed at 145 pounds and wrestled his way into the championship quarterfinals. The junior defeated Hisham Houssain of Terra Linda (San Rafael, Calif.) 9-1 in the opening round. He followed that up with a 6-0 win over Isaiah Sanchez of Will Wood (Vacaville, Calif.) and Kamwren Aiken of Ventura, Calif.
In the quarterfinals, Okuma lost to Lorenzo DeLaRiva of Folsom by technical fall at 16-0. Okuma battled back through the consolation bracket, which included a 6-4 win over Trevor Anderson, the No. 2 seed from Klamath Union (Klamath Falls, Ore.). He met up with DeLaRiva once again, losing by technical fall in the third-place match.
"Brandon has been wrestling well for the past couple of weeks," Brooks said. "He lost to one of the best wrestlers in Nevada at our tournament and ran into a quality kid from California twice."
Cardenas, a sophomore, had another strong tournament as he reached the quarterfinals as well. The No. 7 seed received a bye in the opening round and in his first action beat Cory Campbell of College Park (Pleasant Hill, Calif.) by fall in 72 seconds. In the round of 16, Cardenas needed nearly all three periods to beat Eli Honeycutt of Yuba City, Calif.
Cardenas suffered his only loss in the quarterfinals as Hildelv Manzur of Palma won by pin. Manzur went on to win the championship. Cardenas came back through the consolation bracket to knock off Carlos Gutierrez of Buhach Colony and Campbell for a second time. Cardenas beat Davin Addison of Boise, Idaho, the No. 1 seed, 3-2, to reach the third-place match, where he lost to Jake Minshaw of Casa Roble.
"He beat the same kid from Idaho that Fernando (Herrera) did last year," added the coach. "For a sophomore he is looking pretty good right now."
Kevin Blanco (106) reached the round of 16 with a win over Damonte Ranch's Mike Solferino. He won two consolation bouts before being eliminated.
Daniel Pollock (113) did the same the thing, beating Alex Bonta of Beyer (Modesto, Calif.) and Manoor Ahmadi of Yuba City. Pollock lost in the round of 16 but earned two wins in the consolation bracket, including a match against Fernley's Ernesto Garcia.
Eric Brooks (120) reached the quarterfinals, which included a win by pin over Zachary Nance of Grants Pass in the round of 16. Nance was the No. 7 seed in the tournament. Brook lost to Thaddeus Nelson of Marshfield (Coos Bay, Ore.) in the quarterfinals and to Robby Standley of Paso Robles in the consolation bracket.
Tytin Johnson (195) made his way to the quarterfinals as the No. 8 seed and after a first-round bye, he narrowly beat Yerington's Sam Monahan 6-4. Johnson won another close decision, 4-3 over Mark Papish of Rodriguez (Fairfield, Calif.). In the quarterfinals, Johnson faced the No. 1 seed, Trevor Roberts of Mountain View and lost 5-4. Johnson lost his consolation match, knocking him out of the tournament.
Nathan Nelson (126) lost his first match, but won twice in the consolation bracket before being eliminated. Aaron Nelson (132) won his first two matches to reach the round of 16, but lost his final two bouts.
Lowry hosted McQueen and Churchill County in a dual on Thursday night and results were not available at press time. The Buckaroos travel to Nampa, Idaho, this weekend to defend their Rollie Lane Invitational championship.
"It's another challenging weekend for us," Brooks said. "We are going through a grind of tough tournaments. This is the time of the year where you want to start making a move toward the end of the season."
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