Lowry wrestling sends eight to state
The Lowry High School wrestling team will have eight grapplers on its home mats this weekend, as Winnemucca hosts the NIAA State Wrestling Championships on Friday and Saturday at the Winnemucca Event Center.
The Buckaroos’ Jhett Haber at 157 pounds and Luke Fentress (165) won individu-al titles at the Northern 3A Regional Championships this past weekend at Wooster High School in Reno.
Lowry finished second as a team with 22 points, with Elko, the reigning 3A state champion, winning with 302 points. Churchill County (178), Fernley (175) and Spring Creek (170.5) rounded out the top five.
Harber won all three of his matches by first-period wins, beginning with Fernley’s Teague Kenison in the quarterfinals. With one second left in the first period, Har-ber pinned Elko’s Alex Apodaca to advance to the final. Harber took it right to the end of the first period again in the final, pinning Churchill County’s Tyler Hatch with three seconds to spare.
Fentress made his way into the semifinals with a pin of Zaiden Stephenson of North Valleys. Fentress needed to go the distance in the semifinal and beat Elko’s Jesston Tkach 6-1 and he finished the weekend with a third-period pin of Thayne Hatch of Churchill County to win the title.
Coda Nichols at 112 pounds and Wade Mori (144) collected runner-up finishes for the Buckaroos. Nichols received a first-round by into the quarterfinals, where he pinned Fernley’s Alex Juliot with two seconds left in the first period.
Nichols advance to the final with a pin of Andre Green of Churchill County, but he lost in the finale 12-3 to Elko’s Marco Romero.
Mori battled his way through the bracket, starting with pins of Churchill County’s Caen McKnight and Truckee’s Miles Kelly-Caruthers. In the semifinals, Mori got by South Tahoe’s Patrick Webster in a 4-2 decision. Mori lost to Spring Creek’s Col-ton Browne in the championship match.
Kruz Gomez at 106 pounds, Marcas Ricci (120) and Brayden Dennis (175) placed third for Lowry. Gomez made his way through the quarterfinals, winning by inju-ry default over Evan Mackuliak of Churchill County. Gomez lost 5-0 in the semifi-nals to Fernley’s Camron McMackin, but came back to pin Manuel Barros of Churchill County in the consolation semifinals. Gomez claimed third place with a 11-8 win over South Tahoe’s Charlie Bergquist.
Ricci was one of the busier Buckaroo wrestlers on the weekend with five matches. Ricci opened with a first-period pin over Truckee’s Jack Ridgel and followed that up with a 19-4 win over Hug’s Ever Onofre.
Ricci dropped the semifinal bout to Fernley’s Nathan Pritchard and then beat Rid-gel again 16-1 and he won third with a second-period pin over Fernley’s Caleb Finley.
After a first-round bye, Dennis advanced to the semifinals with a first-period pin over Hug’s Wyatt Reed. Dennis lost in the semifinals but came back through the bracket with two wins by pin to secure his berth to the state tournament.
Damon Fetty will be headed to the state tournament at 150 pounds after placing fourth. Fetty began the regional championships with a first-period pin over Fern-ley’s KeShawn Love. Fetty dropped a 6-1 decision to Spring Creek’s Gage Carter in the semifinals and reached the third-place match with an injury default victory over Dayton’s Jay Parsons. Fetty lost the third-place bout by a 12-8 decision to Elko’s Jordon Howes.
Brenton Baker (126), Erick Valencia (132) and Chris Gildone (138) finished fifth and one spot out of advancing to state. Bradyn Snyder (132) and TJ Mattson (190) each placed sixth.
The NIAA State Championships take place this Friday and Saturday at the Winnemucca Event Center. Action gets under way at noon on Friday with the opening round of the 5A.
The other classes join at 12:40 p.m. and wrestling will continue through the day and evening. Wrestling resumes at 9 a.m. on Saturday.