Due to a last-minute change the Battle Mountain High School wrestling team had to quickly alter their travel plans.
The Horns were scheduled to wrestle in the annual Spring Creek tournament, but on Thursday afternoon that tournament was canceled and left them looking for a last-minute replacement.
Fortunately, Douglas High School was hosting a large tournament in Minden and was able to work the Longhorns in.
“We were prepared and excited to go to Spring Creek, it is always one of the best tournaments in Northern Nevada, so when it got canceled, we were scrambling. The Douglas coach was awesome and let us in at the last minute,” said BMHS head coach Mitch Domagala. “This was a good lesson for our kids, we always talk about being prepared for anything, that includes last minute changes.”
So, Battle Mountain made the trip to Minden and made the most of the new opportunity.
A little short-handed — the Horns finished in sixth place out of 17 teams. Leading the way for Battle Mountain were Sean Scherer and Brice Domagala with first-place finishes.
Scherer only had two matches on the day. In his first match he faced Cody Highfill of the host Douglas Tigers.
In workmanlike fashion Scherer secured a 15-0 tech fall in the second period. In the championship match he took out Lowry’s Marcus Ricci with a dominate 49-second pin.
Domagala was equally dominate in his run to the title as he pinned McQueen’s Kadyn Suraco in the first period.
In the semifinals, Domagala battled to a 6-5 decision over Garcia of Douglas. Domagala secured the gold medal when Lowry’s Hunter Smith forfeited to him in the championship finals.
“This was a really good weekend for these two,” added the coach. “They are always so close to the top step of the podium that it was great to see them finally push themselves to the title”.
Asher Bundrock put together a 4-1 record as he finished in third place. He started the day with a 58 second pin of Sylvester of Spanish Springs followed by a win over teammate Scott Wall, before falling in the semi-finals.
Bundrock was able to re-group and pin Keller of McQueen High School to advance to the bronze medal match where he met teammate Scott Wall once again. After a hard-fought battle Bundrock came back with third place.
Scott Wall started with a quick 24 second win over an opponent from North Valley High before falling to Bundrock in the second round. He then reeled off three straight wins against 5A opponents to make the bronze medal match and another face off with his teammate.
“These two had an amazing tournament,” Domagala said. “They both have been working so hard in practice and to have it pay off in a tournament setting will just fuel their fire for more success. Having them in the same weight class hurt us a bit team point wise. Eventually we’ll get them moved to separate weight classes and that will really help us.”
Dalton Shake went 2-2 to finish in fourth place. He lost to Walker of Lowry and Severne of Spanish Springs before finishing with two wins over Douglas opponents to secure his spot on the podium.
“Dalton just keeps improving. There’s nothing fancy to him, just consistent. He’s definitely spiraling upwards right now”
A pair of first year wrestlers also made some noise in Douglas. James Spealman won a hard fought 8-1 decision in his first match before falling to the eventual tournament champion in the second round. Spealman responded by pinning Chapman from Fallon in his first consolation match, but was eliminated one match short of placing.
Andy Wall was making his return from injury and competing in just his second tournament of the season.
He started the tournament off strong with a 17-5 decision over Vera of Fallon before losing two very tough back-to-back matches.
Also, wrestling was Joe Scherer. Joe had a tough draw in his first two matches and was not able to get a win on the day.
“These three just keep getting better and closer to placing every week,” said the coach. “They’ll keep working hard and it’ll pay off towards the end of the season”
Battle Mountain is scheduled to travel to Fernley this weekend.
