The regular season to the high school wrestling season has come to a quick and end and Lowry High School was in Fernley last weekend at the Vaquero Classic for one final tournament.
Jhett Harber won the 175-pound weight class, while Kruz Gomez at 113 pounds and Luke Fentress (190) were second.
The Buckaroos placed fourth as a team with 210.50 points. Spanish Springs ran away with the team title with 340 points, followed by Fernley (274) and Douglas (267).
“It was a week later than past years and they got some new teams as a result,” said LHS coach John Brooks. “It was a pretty tough tournament. We got three wrestlers in the finals - Kruz Gomez, Jhett Harber and Luke Fentress — with Jhett being our one champion. All in all, it was a solid showing for the team leading into the postseason.”
Harber was dominant over the two days, winning all five matches by pin.
The first four falls all came in the first period. Harber needed just 81 seconds to beat Carson’s Jeffery Heaton in the semifinals and he earned his title with a second-period pin over Spanish Springs’ Kyler DePapepe.
Fentress pinned Carson’s Izaiah Oliva and Reed’s Kyren Edwards in the first period to advance to the quarterfinals.
In that round, Fentress defeated Douglas’ Aaron Tekansik.
Fentress knocked off teammate Brayden Dennis in the semifinals, but lost to Burns’ (Ore.) Joe Wall in the title match.
Gomez pinned North Valleys’ Alan Ayala, Fernley’s Demery Alldredge and Hug’s Brian Bernabe-Verdin to reach the final. He lost in the championship to Spanish Springs’ Tobey Foreman.
The Buckaroos’ Chris Gildone earned a third-place finish at 144 pounds. After a first-round bye, Gildone started with a pin over Spring Creek’s Sam Marich and a 17-2 win over Israel Knight of Pershing County.
Gildone was defeated in the semifinals by Spanish Springs’ Kadrick Lewallen but came back with a 6-4 win over Tonopah’s Brekken Miller and a 9-8 win over Spring Creek’s Colton Cunningham.
Logan Jonas placed fourth at 285 pounds after advancing to the championship semifinals.
Jonas beat Tonopah’s Caleb Cutler in the consolation semifinals, but lost to Battle Mountain’s Ben George in the third-place match.
Pete Bengochea defeated teammate Edward Jones for fifth place at 106 pounds, while Jose Villagomez was fifth at 165 pounds. Marcas Ricci was sixth at 126 pounds after reaching the championship semifinals.
Brayden Snyder (138), Alessondro Huerta (157) and TJ Mattson (215) advanced to the consolation fifth round.
Lowry travels to Fallon this Friday and Saturday for the Northern 3A Duals. The duals set the seeding for the Northern 3A Regional Championships in Spring Creek on Feb. 9-10.
The NIAA 3A State Championships take place on Friday, Feb. 16, in Bullhead City, Ariz.