The Winnemucca Event Center was a busy place this past weekend, as the Lowry High School wrestling team hosted the annual Cody Louk Invitational.
More than 20 schools from northern Nevada were on hand for the event, including a handful of 4A schools.
Spanish Springs continued its early dominance of the wrestling season, winning with 321 points. Reno was second at 215 and Lowry placed third with 182 points. Carson (165.50) and Spanish Springs B (153) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
“Spanish Springs is a pretty good team,” said LHS coach John Brooks. “I was hoping to catch Reno for second place, but just could not do it. We let a couple matches get away from us over the weekend. I liked how we finished the tournament.”
Isaiah Blanco at 106 pounds, Bryan Day (132), Quint Bell (152), Seth Hornbarger (160) and Bryan Ramos (285) all placed third for the Buckaroos.
Blanco defeated Reed’s Justin Graves and Wooster’s Christian Harshbarger to reach the semifinals. The freshman took on the second seed Anthony Sissom of Spanish Springs in the semifinal and lost by fall. Blanco came back to pin Carson’s Eli Thomas and Wooster’s Jorge Diaz to place third.
Day collected a bye in the opening round and defeated Sparks’ Walter Gudiel in the second round by technical fall. The junior lost to Carson’s Kyle Rudy 10-5 in the quarterfinals. Day fought his way back through the consolation bracket to win four times. After victories over Garrett Donaldson and Colton Williams. Day pinned Battle Mountain’s DeAndre Powell in the consolation semifinals. Day earned third place with a 4-0 decision over Spanish Springs’ James Daniels.
Bell cruised through his first three matches at 152 pounds, with two pins and a 16-1 decision over North Valley’s Leo Ponce. Bell took on Spanish Springs’ Joey McKay in the semifinals. In the opening week, McKay won by pin over Bell. This time, the junior battled to a 7-5 decision, but fell short in the end. Bell won his last two matches by fall to collect a third-place finish for the Buckaroos.
Hornbarger pinned Reno’s Dylan Cox and Carson’s Jarod Butler in the first period to advance to the semifinals. He met up with a Spanish Springs wrestler as well and lost by fall. The junior knocked off teammate Ryan Johnson in the consolation semifinals and he beat Butler for a second time to placer third.
Ramos had the quickest win of the weekend, as the senior pinned Hug’s Logan Young in seven seconds in the opening round. Ramos continued with first-period pins over Elko’s Byron Hansen and Fernley’s Lonnie Slapinski.
Ramos dropped his semifinal match to Spanish Springs’ Tyler Barats, but he came back to beat Hansen and Slapinski to place third.
“I was happy with our younger wrestler again,” Brooks said. “Isaiah had a good weekend. I was pleased with how Bryan (Day), Quint, Seth and Bryan (Ramos)wrestled. Seth is getting better every week.”
Taylor Corak (113), Matthew Souza (120) and Zack Peters (145) finished fifth for the Buckaroos. Corak went 4-2 over the weekend, losing to Jared Caulk of Fernley in the quarterfinals. The freshman came back to be Hug’s Sebastian Hatzi and Dayton’s Tucker Callison to reach the consolation semifinals. Corak dropped his semifinal match to Spanish Springs’ Nick Foster, but won fifth-place by forfeit over Caulk after the Fernley wrestler was disqualified from the tourney.
Souza made his way into the championship semifinals with victories over South Tahoe’s Tyler Njoten and Pershing County’s Ricky Reitz. Souza lost a close 6-3 bout to Reed’s Alex Casarez in the semifinals and the junior also lost his consolation semifinal match. Souza came back for fifth place with a win over Battle Mountain’s Michael Malone.
After a bye in the first round, Peters pinned Wooster’s Wyatt Shaw to advance to thew quarterfinals. Peters lost to Spanish Springs’ Isaac Ruiz, but knocked off a pair of Yerington wrestlers to reach the consolation semifinal. He lost that bout, but placed fifth after beating Ruiz by forfeit.
Freshman Trent McKellips placed sixth at 195 pounds for Lowry. McKellips had to wrestle six rounds in the consolation bracket. Ryan Johnson for the Lowry Gold placed sixth at 160 pounds.
“I have to remind myself we are a young team,” Brooks said. “We are going to make some mistakes. We are doing OK now. We were missing a few kids this weekend and it will be nice to get everyone back and have a full team.”
Lowry makes the short trip to Lovelock on Saturday for the Mustang Invitational at 9 a.m.
