They say all good things must come to an end.
The Lowry High School wrestling team has been on magical run for seven years, dominanting the sport in Nevada for nearly a decade. If you mention Winnemucca to high school sports enthusiasts, the first thing that comes to mind is Buckaroo wrestling.
Since 2009, Lowry has had three, four-time individual champions in Jace Billingsley, Michael Billingsley and Beau Billingsley. Jace Billingsley has moved on to be an All-American football player at Eastern Oregon University, while Michael Billingsley is wrestling for Air Force and Beau Billingsley will join him at the academy this fall.
Take a walk through the wrestling room and you will see a number of names that have contributed to the success that is Lowry wrestling over the last seven years. Those names are proudly placed up there. There is a spot reserved for state champions, guys that win 40 and 50 matches and academic all-state champions as well.
There are wrestlers that you won't see on the wall either, but they are just a big part of the program as well. When you win seven straight regional championships and six consecutive state titles and runner-up finishes twice in an eight-year span, you get contributions from everyone. It doesn't matter if you are a freshman or senior or everything in between, someone had a part in making history.
The Buckaroos had dream teams in 2012 and 2013 and no one in Nevada, was going to beat them, even Green Valley, who won its fourth consecutive Division I state title on Saturday. Lowry begged Green Valley to duals back then and the Gators refused. Green Valley had to come through Winnemucca to go to the Rollie Lane Invitational in Idaho. Lowry asked if they were interested in dual, since they were in town. There was a polite no.
Lowry asked to be part of a three-way dual between Reno, Reed and Green Valley, prior to a tournament in Reno. Well you know how that ended. The Buckaroos offered to roll mats out, tape them down and when done, move them to the tournament venue. You guessed it, no we don't want you.
A season ago in 2014, teams in the Division I-A thought they had a chance to knock off the Buckaroos. Lowry did not have the "super teams" of the past, but battled its way to another state title. The Buckaroos got off to a shaky start, but won the title in Primm.
Lowry lost a handful of strong wrestlers due to graduation, but the expectations were still high for this season.
I saw first hand the pressure that was on this group of young men. At stake was a dual streak record that dated back to 1979 by Yerington. The Buckaroos looked at the program back then and wanted to be the Lions. They did just that and there is mutual respect for the two wrestling powerhouses.
In front of its home crowd at the end of January, Lowry beat Spring Creek 41-14 to win 108. Right away you could tell there was a 1,000-pound gorilla lifted off the shoulders of the wrestlers and coaches. The next week, Lowry won its seven consecutive regional title by a wide margin.
That brings us to this past weekend in Winnemucca at the state tournament, where the pressure is on in front of the hometown. The unexpected happened and the Buckaroos had an off weekend for the first time since, well who knows when.
It seemed everything went wrong for Lowry and right for Pahrump Valley. I will be the first to say the Trojans deserved the victory. They looked at what Lowry has done and built their program to match the Buckaroos.
Momentum is a funny thing. When matches began to go wrong for Lowry, it came in bunches like a runaway truck. On the opposite side, Pahrump Valley created its own good vibes.
There was a mixed reaction of stunned silence in the arena and others were happy to see Lowry finally lose and see Goliath slayed. You are going to have that and that is fine.
This will sting for a while and it should, but you can't let one weekend define what you have done in the past seven years.
During the awards ceremony, NIAA Assistant Director Donnie Nelson said it best when it is a monumental task to host a state tournament and trying to win a seventh straight state title. He congratulated the Buckaroos on their accomplishments from the past and for the show Lowry and Winnemucca put on this weekend.
To me that is the ultimate show of respect.
Winnemucca Publishing Sports Editor Tony Erquiaga can be reached via email at t.erquiaga@winnemuccapublishing.net.
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