The annual Spring Creek Kiwanis Invitational Tournament provides an opportunity for the best teams in the region to come together to battle on the mats.
With teams from Idaho and throughout the state of Nevada gathering to do battle, the Battle Mountain wrestling team was eager to see where its stacked up in the standings last weekend.
“We were anxious to see what we could do against a bunch of the larger schools,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “Any chance we get to compete against top competition is great, it’s the only way to get better.”
The boys from Battle Mountain secured a solid ninth-place finish in the team standings with 99.5 points at the end of the two day event.
Minico, Idaho, won the tournament with 235.50 points. Caldwell, Idaho (202.50) was second and Reno (193) placed third. Churchill County (178) and Spring Creek (170) rounded out the top five
With the majority of their wrestlers competing, the Longhorns were well represented in the win column. Cameron Thompson led the way with a third place finish in his 112-pound weight class. He defeated Spring Cerek’s Riley Fuchs 6-5 to earn third.
Joining him on the medal stand were Zach Heese in fourth place at 220 pounds, Cesar Tovar (195) in fifth place and Mason Chopp (170) brought home sixth place.
“These four had huge weight classes and just continued to battle the whole way. They just kept fighting,” Domagala said.
Also racking up wins for the Longhorns were Jake Legarza, Matt Rochester, Owen Oakes, and Tristin Cordingley as they came within one win of reaching the podium.
“These guys were so close, one break here or there and they’d have been in the finals round,” added the coach.
DeAndre Powell, Brandon Stallard, Bobby Kester, Thomas Amezcua, Daegen McClary, Fernando Carrillo and Ricardo Carrillo all wrestled tough as they won matches in the early going.
“This group does a great job for our team,” Domagala said. “They continually score points for us at every event. With the way they practice, they’ll break through and be contenders at the end of the season.”
The Spring Creek tournament offers a unique format as on Saturday they host a second tournament that runs along side the original Friday tournament.
The Longhorns entered this tournament as well and had a lot of success. Carrillo, McClary and Oakes went undefeated for the day and won their weight classes.
DeAndre Powell finished in second place and Stallard, Amezcua and Ricardo Carrillo captured third place finishes, while Tyler Rochester rounded out the placing for the Longhorns with a fourth place finish.
“This was a good chance for the kids to get a lot of matches in against some of the best competition in the area. We wrestled tough and earned every one of our wins,” said BMHS assistant coach Mike Williams.
The Longhorn wrestlers will be traveling west down I-80 this weekend as they take part in the Fernley Invitational.
The Longhorns will host the Northern 2A Duals on Friday, Jan 27, starting at 1 p.m.
