The Lowry High School wrestling team will send seven of its grapplers to this weekend’s NIAA State Championships at Virgin Valley High School in Mesquite.
All seven of Lowry’s wrestlers took part in the championship match at the regional tournament last weekend in Sparks.
Anthony Peterson at 170 pounds and Kole Mattson (285) brought home individual titles.
“I thought we bounced back pretty good,” said LHS coach Johns Brooks. “They didn’t like losing that dual to Fernley anymore than I did. The kids responded pretty good, but we ran into Spring Creek in the finals.”
Spring Creek ran away with the team title with 313.50 points, winning its fifth regional championship in a row. Lowry was second at 167 and Fernley (143.50), Elko (139) and South Tahoe (98) rounded out the top five.
Mattson wrestled just twice over the two days, receiving a bye in round one.
In the semifinals, Mattson pinned Elko’s Gabe Lazono 50 seconds in to the second period. The junior had even an easier time in the final, pinning Fernley’s Alex Carr in 95 seconds.
“Mattson bounced back after a bad week for him,” added the coach. “That heavyweight division is a weird one. It can turn up-side-down again this week. That is how that weight class has been.”
Peterson had to wrestle three times, opening with a pin in 72 seconds over Dayton’s Joshua Buen. Peterson went down to the final seconds of the second period to pin Fernley’s Josh Owens in the semifinals.
The junior had to go the full six minutes in the championship bout, beating Sparks’ Tyler Green 9-1.
“Anthony has turned it on the last couple of weeks,” Brooks said. “He tore through a defending state champion. That was a statement win. Hopefully, that goes into this final week.”
Angel Huerta (113) Isaac Mori (126), Taylor Corak (132), Caden Ricci (138) and Cade Bell (152) each placed second.
After a first-round bye, Huerta needed just 35 seconds to dispose of South Tahoe’s Jeffery Chavarria. Huerta made his way into the final after pinning Fernley’s Morgan Zolyniak, but lost to Spring Creek’s Chase Milligan in the final.
Mori was challenged throughout the two days, with all three matches going the distance.
The junior opened with a 8-2 win over Fernley’s Lucas Jurich and followed that up with an 8-5 win over Garrett Walker of North Valleys.
Mori reached the final, but lost 13-4 to Spring Creek’s Kodis Campbell.
Corak was one the busier Lowry wrestlers with four matches in the tournament. In the round of 16, Corak took down North Valleys’ Johnathan Sanchez in the second period by pin.
The senior then pinned South Tahoe’s Brandon Rios and North Valleys’ Joaquin Arevalo to reach the final. The championship was a familiar one at 132 pounds as Corak took on Spring Creek’s Riley Fuchs.
The two have battled in a number of matches this year. After a scoreless first three periods. Fuchs notched a takedown in overtime to win 2-0.
Ricci needed just 26 to get through his first-round match against South Tahoe’s Derek Robbins. Ricci finished with two tough matches, beating Fernley’s Kyle Jones 7-5 in the semifinals, but losing a 1-0 decision in the championship to Spring Creek’s Terron Mogensen.
“We got a few takeaways from those matches,” Brooks said, “We got to get there though. Taylor has been right there with Fuchs all year. Caden came back and lost 1-0 to a guy that smashed him the week before.”
After a first-round bye, Bell flew into the championship with wins over Spring Creek’s Gaberiel Ekanger and North Valleys’ Isaiah McLain. Bell dropped the championship bout to Spring Creek’s Q Boyd.
Jesse Hawkins placed fifth at 145 pounds, opening with a pin over Churchill County’s Cody Shelton. Hawkins lost in the semifinals to Spring Creek’s Bear Browne and in the consolation semifinals to Spring Creek’s Joey MacDiarmid. Hawkins bounced back to beat Shelton in the fifth-place bout.
Eduardo Aguilar was sixth at 132 pounds. The senior met up with Fuchs in the quarterfinals and lost, but bounced back for two wins by pin the consolation bracket.
Coda Nichols (106), Wade Mori (120), Damon Fetty (145) and Juan Lopez (195) also wrestled for Lowry at the regional championships.
The NIAA State Wrestling Championships get underway at 4 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday.
“It pretty much went the way I thought it would,” Brooks said. “I was hoping to get Jesse to state. We are going to go down there and see what we can do.”
