Before the sun came up on Friday morning the Battle Mountain High School wrestling team was finally back on the road.
Its destination was Boise, Idaho, to take part in the Bucks Bags Dual tournament. This is a 32-team tournament that features many of the top 5A and 4A teams from Idaho.
After two days of competition, Battle Mountain finished in second place with a 5-1 record.
The Longhorns started off on Friday defeating Idaho Falls, Ridgevue and Bishop Kelly high schools.
The three victories placed them in the quarterfinals of the tournament Saturday morning against Mountain View High School.
After a hard fought match the green team emerged victorious by a score of 40-33.
In the semifinals Battle Mountain won another tight dual, this time against Skyview 45-36. In the championship match the Longhorns fell to host Capital High School by a 55-27 score.
“I thought we wrestled tough this weekend,” said BMHS head coach Mitch Domagala. “We’re a little behind where we should be right now with the late start we had coming out of football. The conditioning caught up to us in the last match, but our kids went all out.”
Individually, the Longhorns had many great performances. Fabian Castaneda and Mason Chopp were honored at the conclusion of the tournament for going undefeated over the course of the two day event.
Cameron Thompson was honored for concluding a four year unbeaten streak at the Boise tournament, becoming one of only a few to ever accomplish that feat.
DeAndre Powell had a 5-1 record over the two days. Declan McClary, Kohl Bellm, Jose Guizar, Bobby Kester and Tristin Cordingley went 4-2 for the weekend.
Jake Legarza and Daegan McClary recorded 3-3 marks, while Kris Hall, Michael Malone, Ben Jacobson, Tyler Rochester and Lyle Whitten rounded out the varsity with some hard fought matches during the tournament.
“This was a very good first week of competition. The kids really showed heart in all their matches,” added Domagala.
The Longhorns were back in action Tuesday evening against the Elko Indians. Results were not available at press time. Battle Mountain travels to Winnemucca for the Cody Louk Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
