LOVELOCK — A week after finishing third at its own tournament, the Lowry High School wrestling team got back on the winning track this past Saturday at the Mustang Invitational in Lovelock.
The Buckaroos sent five of its grapplers into the finals, winning four individual titles. Lowry finished with 174.50 points, while Fernley was second at 137. Churchill County (134) was third and Spanish Springs (130) and Pershing County (130) rounded out the top five.
“It was a good weekend for us and we were able to get a win,” said LHS coach John Brooks. That will help us down the road. We had some nice performances, but we need to get more kids scoring. We still have not put a full team out on the mat.”
Isaiah Blanco at 106 pounds, Nathen Blanco (132), Quint Bell (152) and Seth Hornbarger (160) won their respective weight classes.
After receiving a bye in round one, Blanco needed just 35 seconds to pin McQueen’s Tom Prairie to advance to the semifinals. The freshman rolled past Spanish Springs’ Keegan Cramer by pin in the semifinals and he won his first high school title with a 13-1 decision over Spring Creek’s Kodis Campbell.
Nathen Blanco made his way to the finals, starting with a pin of Sparks’ Colby Bowman in 71 seconds in round one. The junior earned an 18-3 decision over Carson’s Mark Trost in round two, and he advanced to the final after beating Mineral County’s Anthony Ramirez in the semifinals.
Prior to the his final match, Lowry had lost five overtime bouts on the day. In a back-and-forth finale at 132 pounds, Blanco was able to come back and beat Pershing County’s Eric Wagner 8-6, even though the home crowd thought he had not scored the points on the winning move.
“We had not won an overtime match all day and that is not us,” Brooks said. “We were able to finally get one, even though the call could have gone either way.”
Bell continued his strong start to the season, winning three of his four matches by pin. He started out by pinning Tonopah’s Mathew Malendrez in 97 seconds and Battle Mountain’s Fabian Castaneda to reach the semifinals. The junior defeated Sparks’ Brandon McCraney 6-0 in the semifinals and Bell had little trouble in pinning Yerington’s Anthony Madera in the second period to win the 152-pound weight class.
Hornbarger was on the mat for just 43 seconds in his first two matches. He pinned Fernley’s Denise Mosqueria in 12 seconds in the opening round and Battle Mountain’s Owen Oakes in 32 seconds in round two. It took the junior into the second period to pin Roman Jackson of Spanish Springs to reach the final. He met up with teammate Ryan Johnson in the finale and beat the fellow junior 3-2.
Johnson, wrestling for the Lowry Gold, won his first two matches by pin over Carson’s Darryll Heyward and Pershing County’s Dylan Hultenschmidt. Johnson reached the final by beating Spanish Springs’ Stephen Soto by a 4-1 decision.
Bryan Day (138) finished third on the day and Taylor Corak (113) and Connor Starkey (182) both finished fourth.
Day had little trouble in reaching the semifinals, pinning Hug’s Christian Culver and Fernley’s Thomas Chapin. The junior found himself in of the overtime matches on the day and came up short when Pershing County’s Jayce Leyva recorded a takedown in the extra period.
Day bounced back to beat Spring Creek’s Spencer Pemelton by pin the consolation semifinals. He was awarded third place, when Spring Creek’s Caden Constable had reached his five match limit for one day.
Corak had to take on teammate Anthony Cuevas in round one and beat his fellow freshman by pin. Corak advanced to the semifinals after pinning Reed’s Michael Miller. However, he lost to Spanish Springs’ Nick Foster, before coming back to defeat Tonopah’s Dillan Christianson-Lopez in the consolation semifinals. In the third-place match, Corak lost a 5-3 decision to Pershing County’s Jeffery Martin.
Starkey collected a bye in round one and needed just 84 seconds to advance to the semifinals after pinning Spring Creek’s Spencer Hunt. The senior suffered a 9-5 loss in the semifinals to Fernley’s Arsenio Reyes, but bounced back to knock of Spring Creek’s Hunter Hood in the consolation semifinals. Starkey came up short in the third-place bout, dropping a 5-1 decision to Lincoln Hauck of Bishop Manogue.
Lowry travels to Battle Mountain on Thursday for duals starting at 2 p.m. The Buckaroos move on to the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno on Dec. 28-29 to close out the calendar year.
