The Lowry High School wrestling team had two grapplers finish second in their respective weight classes this past weekend at the Cody Louk Invitational held at Winnemucca Event Center.
The Buckaroos placed second in the team standings with 222.5 points, with Spanish Springs winning with 342.5 points. Fernley (202.5), Carson (195) and Douglas (170.5) rounded out the top five.
Coda Nichols at 113 pounds and Jhett Harber at 165 made their way into the finals. Nichols won his first three matches by pin, as he moved into the quarterfinals with a second-period pin over Galena’s Manakai Kim.
Nichols needed just 54 seconds to beat Spanish Springs’s Travis Lee in the quarterfinals.
He reached the finals with a first-period pin over Reed’s Luis Tapia-Gonzalez, but was defeated in the final by Battle Mountain’s Sean Scherer.
After a first-round bye, Harber rolled in the quarterfinals with a pin of Harley Denison in less than 90 seconds. In the quarterfinals, Harber pinned Carson’s Zach Remer with one second left in the first period.
Harber reached the finals with a pin over Dayton’s Archie Ervin and in the final, Harber was leading Fernley’s Marciano Montano in the third period but caught by a move form the Vaquero wrestler and lost the bout by pin.
Marcas Ricci (120), Brenton Baker (126), Wade Mori (144) and Damon Fetty (157) finished third for the Buckaroos.
Ricci had to earn his third-place finish the hard way after losing his opening match by pin to Wooster’s Matthew O’Brien. Ricci won his next three matches in the consolation bracket to set up a rematch with O’Brien.
This time, Ricci was on the winning side, pinning O’Brien in under two minutes. Ricci then pinned Damonte Ranch’s Cayden Long and he won third with a 38-second pin against Sparks’ Kaiden Irwin.
Baker won his first two matches to reach the championship semifinals, where he lost to Fernley’s Nathan Pritchard.
Baker bounded back in the consolation semifinals with a 12-0 win over Leverett Simpson of Spanish Springs and he claimed third place with a 12-7 win over Damonte Ranch’s Brady Olson.
Mori had a busy weekend with six matches and he won his first two by pin to reach the quarterfinals. In that round he used a 11-5 decision over Carson’s Toby Krehbiel to advance to the semifinals.
He lost in the semifinals, but came back to beat teammate Javier Gonzalez in the consolation semifinals and Reed’s Darrel Chaney in the third-place bout.
Fetty cruised to the semifinals with a pair of wins, but was knocked down to the consolation bracket with a loss to Spanish Springs’ Kolby Benge in the semifinals. Fetty came back to pin Reno’s Chris Kostouros and Reno’s Jackson Sellers to win third place.
Emilio Magana placed fourth at 150 pounds for the Buckaroos. Magana had to come through the consolation bracket after a quarterfinal loss to Reno’s Billy Fisher.
Magana came back through the consolation bracket with three pins, but lost in the third-place match to Spanish Springs’ Cooper Milligan.
Luke Fentress (175) and Jake Bauman placed sixth for Lowry. Jesse Soto (106), Logan Ricci (132), Chris Gildone (138), Logan Jonas (215) and David Teixeira (285) also wrestled for the Buckaroos.
For the Lowry Gold team, who placed 11th in the team standings, Erick Valencia was fifth at 138 pounds, which included a third-period pi over Carson’s Jett Rupert. Javier Gonzalez was sixth at 144 pounds.
Billy DeLong (150) and Josh Burgos (165) advances to the consolation fifth round for the Lowry Gold. Shamus Ball (120), Maddox Hislop (120) and Chase Cheever (132) reached the consolation fourth round.
On Thursday, Dec. 8, Lowry hosted South Tahoe in a dual and beat the Vikings 66-15. Mori, Fetty, Nichols, Ricci and Baker won their matches by pin.
Lowry travels to Lovelock on Saturday for the Pershing County tournament at 9 a.m.
