The Lowry High School wrestling team spent part of its Christmas break in Reno at the Sierra Nevada Classic at the Reno Livestock Event Center on Dec. 27-28.
The Buckaroos were 33rd as a team with 66 points, while Rancho Bernardo won with 212 points. The California school won by just a half a point over Del Oro (211.50). Spring Creek, the defending 3A state champion, was the highest finishing Nevada team in third with 207.5 points.
Other Nevada finishers included Spanish Springs in 12th, Fernley 21st, McQueen 24th and Carson in 35th.
Lowry's best finish was from Taylor Corak at 132 pounds, where the senior placed sixth.
“It’s a pretty good accomplishment to place in the top six at the Sierra Nevada,” said LHS coach John Brooks. “He lost to a kid from Spring Creek in the championship quarterfinals. If we work on it, I think we can come back and beat him.”
Corak began the tournament with a 12-0 win over Cesar Jaimes of Del Oro. The senior pinned Lakeland’s Lucas Williams in the second round and he beat La Grande’s Cole Isaacson 7-0 to reach the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Corak took Spring Creek’s Riley Fuchs and lost 8-2.
“Riley just held on to Taylor’s arm and he couldn’t get any offense going,” Brooks said. “We need to find a way to keep him off of Taylor like that. But, Riley does that to a lot of wrestlers.”
Corak came back through the consolation round to beat Shadow Ridge’s Gabe Talledo 8-2 and Oakmont’s Ben Murphy by pin.
Corak suffered a 3-1 loss in the consolation semifinals and he had to stop 90 seconds into the fifth-place match due to injury.
Anthony Peterson reached the sixth round of the consolation bracket at 182 pounds before being eliminated.
The junior picked up a first-round bye and won his first match in 90 seconds by fall over Millikan’s Jake Weatherlit.
Peterson suffered a 4-3 loss to Yadi Brar of Clovis East in the third round, but he bounced back to secure a 3-2 win over Reed’s Christopher Williams in the consolation bracket.
Peterson stayed in the tournament with a pin over Ponderosa’s Matt Fregoso, but lost his next match in a 9-6 decision to Northgate’s Nicolas Le Sieur.
“I thought Anthony wrestled well,” added the coach. “He got on the mat only a couple times on the first day. We have had a bunch of guys come into practice to work with him. The biggest thing right now is to get his conditioning up for a full six-minute match.”
Kole Mattson (285) reached the fourth round of the consolation bracket, battling his way after a 3-1 overtime loss to Desert Vista’s Jaylen Johnson in the first round. Mattson won his next two matches in the consolation bracket, before losing a 9-3 decision to Mason Smith of Will C. Wood.
Cade Bell (152) reached the fourth round of the consolation bracket as well.
The senior had to wrestle a preliminary match to get into the bracket, where he pinned Isiah McLain of North Valleys in the first period.
Bell lost in the first round to Millikan’s Robert Pallares, only to come back with three wins in the consolation bracket. His tournament ended with a 5-4 loss to Lebanon’s Tucker Drummond.
Caden Ricci (138) reached the fourth round of the consolation bracket. Ricci began with a 9-5 win over Reed’s Marco Budija in the preliminary round to make his way into the bracket.
He lost in the first round to Ryan Johnston of Grants Pass by a 13-8 decision. Ricci rallied to win three matches in the consolation bracket. His tournament ended with a loss to McQueen’s Nick Smith.
Angel Huerta (113), Wade Mori (120), Isaac Mori (126) and Jesse Hawkins (145) also scored points for the Buckaroos.
Lowry head to Idaho this weekend for the Rollie Lane Invitational.
“We had some good performances,” Brooks said. “We are in the tough part of the season with these couple tournaments. It doesn’t get any easier from here on out. The one thing I was happy with was our conditioning. Our conditioning is starting to pay off. We just need to keep on improving.”
