After having an unexpected week off due to Mother Nature, the Lowry High School wrestling team returned to the mats this past weekend at the Spring Creek Kiwanis Invitational.
The 21-team field featured a number of teams throughout Idaho and Nevada. The Buckaroos finished eight with 114.5 points. Minico, Idaho, won with 235.50 points and Caldwell, Idaho, was second at 202.50. Reno (193) placed third and Churchill County (178) and Spring Creek (170) rounded out the top five.
“It was a pretty good tournament,” said LHS coach John Brooks. “Each weight class had a guy that was going to be tough to beat. We got a chance to see some other teams we will see down the road. Fallon and Spring Creek is going to be tough. Virgin Valley might have a chance to surprise some people.”
Quint Bell had the best result of the weekend for the Buckaroos, placing third at 152 pounds. Bell notched wins by pin over Reno’s Dylan Cox and Spring Creek’s Clay Campbell to advance to the quarterfinals. The junior knocked off Elko’s Trevor Basaraba by a 10-4 decision, but lost to Reed’s Israel Casarez by a 7-2 score.
Bell came back to beat Minico’s Kinardo Campos by pin the consolation semifinals, and Caldwell’s Tevin Sio 8-4 in the third-place match.
Bryan Day (132) and Cade Billingsley (170) each placed fourth. Day won his first two matches over Spring Creek’s George Khoury and Battle Mountain’s Brandon Stallard. Day had a tougher rout through the bracket, after losing 2-0 to Elko’s David Burden in the quarterfinals.
“Quint is just wrestling good right now,” Brooks said. “It is going to take a good wrestler to beat him.”
Day had little trouble in his first consolation match, pinning Buhl’s Austin Thompson with two seconds left in the second period. The junior kept his tournament going with a 3-2 victory over Minico’s Juan Ramirez and a 9-7 overtime win over Spring Creek’s Drake Kennedy in the consolation semifinal. Day dropped his third-place match 4-1 to Caldwell’s Dante Carreno.
Billingsley went the same rout as Day, as it took the junior just 95 seconds to win his first two matches. Billingsley pinned Reed’s Zachary Johnson in 64 seconds in the first round and West Wendover’s Kodi Cook in 31 seconds in round two.
Billingsley suffered a 6-2 defeat to Buhl’s Theron Christensen in the quarterfinals, but bounced back with wins over Spring Creek’s Rylan Barone, Fernley’s Cameron Bowman and Battle Mountain’s Mason Chopp. Billingsley faced Christensen for a second time and lost the third-place bout by an 8-4 decision.
Ryan Johnson placed fifth at 145 pounds, Johnson collected a bye in round one, and needed just 81 seconds to win his first bout on the mat over West Wendover’s Bryan Reynoso.
Johnson suffered an 8-5 loss in the quarterfinals, but battled back to beat Moapa Valley’s Hayden Redd and Buhl’s Anibal Barragan in the consolation bracket. The junior lost 6-4 to Minico’s Anthony Rawson in the consolation semifinal, but claimed fifth place by injury default over Spring Creek’s Anthony Chavez.
Matthew Souza (120) and Seth Hornbarger (160) each reach the fifth round of the consolation bracket. Souza made his way into the championship quarterfinals with a bye and pin over Pershing County;s Ricky Reitz. Souza lost in the quarterfinals, but bounced back with a 9-7 decision over Buhl’s Adam Mingis, before getting eliminated by Churchill County’s Terry White.
Hornbarger did not have to wrestle a match to reach the quarterfinals. Hornbarger lost in the quarterfinals, but came back to beat Pershing County’s Dylan Hultenschmidt.
Isaiah Blanco, Nathen Blanco, A.J. Gonzalez and Joe Peterson each picked up two wins for the Buckaroos.
Taylor Corak finished second for the Lowry Gold team. The freshman lost his first match by a 4-2 decision to Minico’s Avery Stimpson. After a bye in the first round of the consolation bracket, Corak won his next four matches to stay alive in the tournament. He won two of the matches by pin and two others by decision. Corak ended the tournament losing his final two bouts.
Lowry is in Fernley this weekend for the Vaquero Invitational. The Buckaroos will head to South Tahoe on Jan. 27-28 for the Northern 3A League Duals.
“We are getting better and better,” Brooks said. “I was happy that we won some close matches. We were not doing that earlier in the season.”
