It was a pretty good day for the Lowry High School wrestling program this past Saturday at the Lovelock Mustangs Invitational at Pershing County High School.
The Buckaroos won the tournament with 248.5 points and the Lowry Gold was fourth at 120. Los Gatos (183.5) and Churchill County (157) were second and third, respectively.
Lowry had five individual champions in Kruz Gomez at 106 pounds, Coda Nichols (113), Benton Baker (126), Jhett Harber (165) and Luke Fentress (175).
After picking up a first-round bye, Gomez needed just 55 seconds to pin Hug’s Cole Willss to get into the semifinals. Gomez had to go the distance in the semifinals, but earned a 11-0 win over Logan Robbins of Spanish Springs.
He had no trouble in the final, pinning Record Hendricks of Spanish Springs in the third period.
Nichols, who placed second in his home tournament the week before, had little resistance in his title run. He pinned Spanish Springs’ Gage White in 65 seconds in the opening round and reached the semifinals with a 11-0 win over Galena’s Manaki Kim.
Nichols advanced to the final with a second-period pin over Yerington’s Eric Pineda and the senior needed just 74 seconds to pin Brady Porter of Spanish Springs to win the 113-pound class.
Baker won all four of his matches in impressive form by pin.
He pinned Hug’s Ethan Murphy in just 53 seconds in the first round and followed with pins over Dayton’s Alex Conseur and Sparks’ Kaiden Irwin. Baker won the 126-pound class with a second-period pin over Churchill County’s Jaiden McFadden.
Harber bounced back from his runner-up finish the week before with four pins at 165 pounds. He started with a win over Reed’s Drake Polak and then he knocked off back-to-back-Reno wrestlers to reach the final. His quickest match of the day was in the final, as he pinned Teddy Smith of Los Gatos in 92 seconds.
Fentress wrestled just three times at 175 pounds on his way to the title. He was on the mat for just 87 seconds in his first two matches, as he pinned Colton Blankenship of Churchill County in 38 seconds and Leonard Guillen of Coral Academy in 48 seconds.
Fentress beat another Coral wrestler in the final with a second-period pin over Aiden Steuinger.
Marcas Ricci earned a runner-up finish at 120 pounds. He received a first-round bye and in his first match pinned Reno’s Bhanu Ghimire in 68 seconds.
He advanced to the final with a 17-1 win over Eureka’s Orlando Casas. Ricci lost to Joseph Ramirez of Los Gatos.
Erick Valencia (132), Damon Fetty (157) and Logan Jonas at 215 pounds each placed third for Lowry. Valencia reached the semifinals with pins over Rodger Facey and Kekona Mitchell. His semifinal bout against Galena’s Logan Obert went to overtime but Obert won 8-3 in the extra period.
Valencia came back in the consolation semifinals to pin Tonopah’s Brekken Miller and won third place with a pin over Sparks’ Kayden Hulet.
Fetty was busy with five matches on the day and won his first two bouts by pin to get to the semifinals. He Los that match to Lucas Pannell of Los Gatos. Harber came back to win his last two matches by pin.
After an opening-round bye, Jonas reached the semifinals with a 43-second pin over Spanish Springs’ Frank Hawkins. Jonas lost in the semifinals but came back for third place with pins over Michele Grossi of Churchill County and Jonathan Santiago of Incline.
David Teixeria finished fourth at 285 pounds after losing his first match of the day. Teixeira came through the consolation bracket with three wins.
Chris Gildone (144), Billy DeLong (150) and Brayden Dennis (190) each reached the consolation semifinal round.
For the Lowry Gold, TJ Mattson won first place in the 175B weight class. He won all four of his matches by pin, including in the final over Churchill County’s Kade Morales.
Josh Burgos was second at 161 pounds, winning his first three matches by pin. He lost in the final to Carson’s Ayden Marhevka. Maddox Hislop (123) and Ryan Utterback (147) each placed third and Jesse Soto was fourth at 106 pounds.
Lowry returns to the mat on Dec. 28-29 in Reno at the Sierra Nevada Classic at the Reno Event Center.
