WINNEMUCCA - There wasn't much drama about who would win the Cody Louk Invitational held this past weekend at the Winnemucca Event Center.
The only question at the end of the day was if Lowry High School was going to double up the point total of second-place finisher Spanish Springs. The Buckaroos came up short of accomplishing that feat but knocked off the Cougars 323.50-175.50 to win the team championship.
Fernley finished third with 160 points, Elko was fourth at 138 and North Valleys rounded out the top five at 129. A total of 18 teams from around northern Nevada took part in the two-day tournament.
"It is another win and that gets in your mind after a while," said LHS head coach John Brooks. "I thought we would come up with a couple of more individual titles than we did. By the time we got to the finals there were some pretty good wrestlers. Besides, that it was a weaker than normal tournament."
The Buckaroos had four of the 14 individual championships, and had three others place second.
Eric Brooks at 132 pounds, Aaron Nelson (138), Beau Billingsley (170) and Luis Cardenas won their respective weight classes.
Brooks won his first two matches by pin over Wells' Paul Moschetti and Fernley's Logan Holmes to reach the semifinals. The senior met up with sophomore teammate Nathan Nelson in the semifinals and came way with a 3-2 win after Nelson recorded a first-period take down. Brooks claimed the title in the weight class with a 5-0 win over Spanish Springs' Blake Boswell.
"That was a good win for Eric," Brooks said. "That was a tough class. I think he got a little wake up call against Nelson."
Billingsley had little trouble over the weekend, winning all of his matches by pin. The senior never spent more than 2 minutes, 20 seconds on the match. Billingsley opened with a 48 second victory over Fernley's Aaron Rogers. He followed that by pinning Elko's Jake Pengally in the second period of the semifinals. Billingsley needed just 23 seconds to pin North Valleys' Mason Meyer to win the title.
Cardenas won three of his four matches on his way to win the 285-pound weight class. The junior began the tournament with a pin over Sparks' David Valentine in the third period. Cardenas finished off Douglas' Ian Pieller in 79 seconds in the quarterfinals and moved on to beat two wrestlers from Pershing County in the semifinals and finals. Cardenas pinned Bobby Gibson in the semifinals and Sitini Kauvaka 9-1 in the title match.
"Beau and Luis are looking good right now," added the coach. "Beau is just really strong and Luis is wrestling solid." Iggy Medina (113), Lane Mentaberry (145) and Jed Johnson (182) finished second for the Buckaroos.
Lowry did not have a wrestler at 113 pounds the first week of the season and Medina came down a weight to fill that spot for the Buckaroos this past weekend.
Medina defeated Galena's Charles Chappel 12-2 in the quarterfinals and pinned Pershing County's Bo Kendall in the second period in the semifinals. Medina controlled much of his title match against John Hires-Caulk but got caught and pinned with 40 seconds to go in the match.
"I am not going to fault Iggy at all," Brooks said. "He came down and filled a class for us. He just got caught and that will happen at times."
Mentaberry cruised through his first two matches against Wells' Waylon O'Neal and his teammate Tyler Boyd to reach the semifinals. Mentaberry easily defeated Pershing County's Angel Ramirez 14-1 in the semifinals, but lost by pin to Sparks' Tymon Dozier in the title match.
Johnson found it easy going in his first three matches, winning by pin over Galena's Jake Folkers and Hug's Paea Maola. In the semifinals, Johnson took out Fernley's CJ Kilbride with an 11-0 decision. The senior had the upper hand in the title match against Wells' Carlos Aguilar but got caught with a move and Aguilar won by pin.
Trase Bell (103), Kevin Blanco (120), Brandon Okuma (152) and Tytin Johnson (195) turned in third-place performances for Lowry.
Okuma had the toughest road to finishing third as he was down 2-1 late in the third period when his Reno opponent Jeremy Smith was called for stalling with no time left on the clock in regulation time. In overtime, Okuma caught Smith and scooped him for the pin and win in overtime.
"That 152-pound weight class was loaded," Brooks said. "Brandon is seeing some bigger kids. In reality, Brandon is a 138 or 145-pound wrestler."
Bell reached the semifinals, but lost a close match 7-6 to Reno's Connor Pearson. The sophomore bounced back in the consolation bracket to beat Fernley's David Partain and Riley Twitchell for third.
Blanco also reached the semifinals, where he was pinned by Elko's Aram Villegas, who won the weight class. Blanco came back to beat Fernley's Dillon Maguin and Pershing County's Riley Kendall for third.
Tytin Johnson won by pin to reach the semifinals, but lost 7-5 to Spanish Springs' Brik Chesley. Chelsey scored two points late in the match to earn the victory. The senior came back in the consolation bracket, Johnson beat Elko's Angel Liveanos and Douglas' Zachary Singer.
Nathan Nelson (132) and Anthony Hummel (195) finished fourth, Michael Venzor (126) was fifth and Shaun Mentaberry (160) was sixth for the Buckaroos.
The Lowry gold finished 11th as a team with 69 points and three wrestlers finish in the top six. Gabe Molina placed third at 132 pounds, beating his teammate Nathan Nelson. The Buckaroos had three wrestlers finish in the top four of the weight class. Tyler Boyd placed fourth at 145 pounds and Mikea Somers was sixth at 285 pounds.
Lowry hosts Battle Mountain Tuesday night at 5 p.m. and travels to Reno Friday and Saturday for the Reno Tournament of Champions. A second team will travel to Lovelock this weekend.
"We can't take anything for granted," Brooks said. "I know what kind of team Battle Mountain can put together. The Reno Tournament of Champions will be our first big test."
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