As January came to a close, the Battle Mountain High School wrestling Team began gearing up for a postseason run to the state tournament.
The action started on Wednesday night (Jan. 23) in Elko as the Longhorns made the short trip for the Eastern AA League Duals. The boys in green posted a 4-0 team mark. Battle Mountain knocked off Owyhee 60-6, Independence 66-0, Wells 48-15 and Eureka 48-15.
“We spend most of our season just focusing on our goal of improving every week, but once these duals roll around we begin to focus on the state tournament and what we need to do to be able to make a run at it,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “The kids were really excited about getting the post season started and they sure put on a good show.”
On Friday, Battle Mountain hosted the crossover portion of the duals to finish up the league part of their schedule as they competed against teams from Excel Christian, Coral Academy, Incline, Lovelock and Yerington.
“We only get to wrestle in front of the home crowd once a year and the kids get excited for it,” added the coach. “Battle Mountain dominated in four of the five duals, but unfortunately fell to Lovelock in the championship showdown.
Battle Mountain beat Excel Christian 60-6, Coral Academy 60-6, Incline 66-0 and Yerington 48-34. The Longhorns’ lone loss was 46-36 to Pershing County.
Declan McClary, Jordan Gonzalez, Owen Oakes and Tristin Cordingley all went 9-0 in the duals and will be the No. 1 seed in the regional championships in their respective weight classes.
Jose Guizar, Daegan McClary, Kris Hall and Richard Carrillo were 8-1. Lyle Whitten was 7-2, Michael Malone and Dalton Shake were each 5-4 and Zach Duggan was 5-1. Jorge Chavira went 3-2 and Brice Domagala and Tyler Rochester were each 2-2.
The Longhorns wrestle in the Northern Division AA League Tournament Saturday in Lovelock. The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the state tournament.
The NIAA State Tournament is scheduled for February 8-9 in Winnemucca. For a full schedule of the state tournament visit www.niaa.com.
On Saturday, a pair of the Longhorn’s female wrestlers traveled to Las Vegas for the inaugural Nevada All-Classification Girls State Tournament. Freshman Jacee Herald went 2-2 in the tournament and came up one match short of placing. Junior Alex Jones went 3-1 and came home with a third place medal.
“Now our focus turns to the Northern League tournament. The success we had in the duals gets us some favorable seeds, but we need to focus on each match.”
