Lowry’s Harber wins state championship at 157 pounds
Lowry High School’s Jhett Harber captured the 157-pound title at the NIAA 3A State Wrestling Championships this past weekend at the Winnemucca Event Center.
Harber pinned his way to the title bout with wins over Adrean Portillo of Valley and Alex Apodaca of Elko.
In the championship match against Shandon Matheson of Moapa Valley, Harber got a takedown late in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Matheson picked up an escape for the only scoring in the second period to trim the lead to 2-1. Harber got another takedown in the third period and kept Matheson at bay from there.
“I am happy for Jhett,” said LHS coach John Brooks. “He wrestled well the past few weeks and had a good weekend here. He deserved it.”
Elko won the team championship for a second year in a row, with 118.5 points and Virgin Valley (99) was second. Lowry placed third with 93 points, followed by Boulder City (91) and Fernley (80.5).
“One of these times we are going to find a way to beat Virgin Valley,” said the coach. “They went 4-for-4 and got us right at the end for second. That hurt a little bit. It took us a long time to get going this year. It kind of turned around for us with the home dual with Fernley and Battle Mountain. I try to look back and see if we could have done anything different this weekend and really can’t see many. We lost a goofy one and hat was about it.”
Coda Nichols at 113 pounds and Luke Fentress (165) earned runner-up finishes for the Buckaroos. Nichols pinned Chaparral’s Edwin Lopez at the end of the first period and advanced to the finals with a pin over Spring Creek’s Trent Whitely. Nichols lost to Elko’s Marco Romero in the final.
Fentress picked up a second-period pin of Moapa Valley’s Gary Leavitt in the quarterfinals and beat South Tahoe’s Andrew Singelyn in the semifinals. Fentress lost to Virgin Valley’s Cutler Crandall in the finals.
“They had pretty good year,” Brooks said. “They wrestled well all season. “They both ran into a pretty good guy in the finals.”
Marcas Ricci placed third at 120 pounds, starting the weekend with a third-period pin of Chaparral’s Julian Huerta.
Ricci dropped his semifinal bout to Carson Melendy of Churchill County but came back with a 6-4 win over Caleb Anderson of Moapa Valley.
In the third-place match, Ricci beat Caleb Finley of Fernley by pin in the first period.
Kruz Gomez at 106 pounds, Wade Mori (144) and Damon Fetty (150) each placed fourth.
Gomez trailed Moapa Valley’s Morris Wolfley for much of his quarterfinal bout. Wolfley led 2-1 after two minutes, with Gomez getting an escape with 10 seconds to go.
Both wrestlers picked up reversals in the second period with Wolfley leading 4-3. Gomez escaped for a second time in the third period, where he tied the match and won in overtime 6-4 with a takedown.
Gomez lost to Elko’s Camden Jensen in the semifinals, as Jensen went on to win the title. The freshman won his consolation semifinal bout but lost to Wolfley 706 in the third-place match.
Mori reached the semifinals with a 10-4 win over Chaparral’s James Donham. The senior lost to Virgin Valley’s Ruben Silveyra 8-4 in the semifinals but bounced back with a pin over Moapa Valley’s Mateo Bradshaw. Mori lost his third-place match 5-1 to Patrick Webster of South Tahoe.
Fetty lost his opening match to Pahrump Valley’s Brennan Benedict and had to come through the consolation brackets. Fetty beat Boulder City’s Charlie Stewart 15-1 and Elko’s Jordan Howes 3-2.
Fetty led 2-1 after the first period and broke a 2-2 tie in the third period with an escape. The senior lost to Moapa Valley’s Chance Houston for third.
Brayden Dennis wrestled for the Buckaroos at 175 pounds.
“The biggest thing is we need to get more kids in the room,” Brooks said. “We did a pretty good job with eight kids and state and were right in the middle of it at the end. It is tough when you don’t any guys in those last three weight classes and can’t score any points. We are losing some good seniors and going to be tough to replace.”