Carson wrestling tops Damonte Ranch in dual

BY MIKE HOUSER

Nevada Appeal Sports Writer

When it came to selling the drama in Carson's dual meet with Damonte Ranch, Justin Barlow and Ricky Ugarte were like dueling banjoes.

Both juniors dug deep to score come-from-behind pins during the last minute of their respective matches to lead the Senators to a 44-33 victory over state runner-up and defending Northern 4A and Sierra League champion Damonte Ranch Wednesday at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

Barlow trailed Cody Kilgore, 7-1, in the third period of their 215-pound match before he caught lightning in a bottle and turned things around on his opponent.

Bleeding from his nose and mouth from a second-period head butt, Barlow found himself under a pressing Kilgore before noticing an opening.

"He stuck his left arm in the first time I tried (a Peterson) on him, and it almost worked," Barlow said. "I set him up for it. The second time, I got the roll on him."

From there, Barlow " a two-way lineman for the CHS football team " relied on his conditioning to pin Kilgore with only 41 seconds left in the match.

"It was all weight training and strength that helped pin him down," said Barlow, whose victory gave Carson six points to cut Damonte Ranch's early lead to 24-16.

Carson's Max Schadeck (heavyweight), Pat Craugh (103) and Adam Brown (112) each won by forfeit to give the Senators a 34-24 lead before Ugarte and Damonte's Cole Raglen met at 119 pounds.

Raglen led 5-1 after two periods, but like Barlow, Ugarte struck late in his match to surprise his opponent, notching the fall with only eight seconds left on the clock to give Carson a nearly insurmountable 40-24 lead.

"I was wrestling sloppy " he got two takedowns," Ugarte said. "When I was out of bounds, I noticed there was 1:05 left. I knew I needed to do something. I tried to take a shot to tire him out. I think he got tired. In the beginning he'd do shots, in the end he was backing up."

Ugarte, who placed in two tournaments last season, improved to 7-3 on the season and has his sights set on making it to state this season.

Garrett Manouckian won via forfeit at 125 pounds to draw the Mustangs to within 40-30. Damonte Ranch needed to score a pair of pins in its final two matches to win the dual, but the Mustangs were able to pick up only three points in Spencer O'Neal's 10-3 win over Carson's Adam Welch at 130.

With the victory sealed, Carson's Bryce Landolt turned it on late against Kenny Nez to score a 13-5 major decision at 135.

The win boosted Carson's Sierra League record to 2-0 and its overall mark to 6-1. Damonte Ranch slipped to 5-5, 1-2.

"Carson did a great job," said first-year Mustangs coach Shawn Reilly. "They caught the momentum and worked with it tonight. (Carson coach Tim) McCarthy has done a good job with a young group."

Carson's Brandon Patterson opened the match with a forfeit victory at 140 pounds.

The Mustangs took the 18-6 lead on the strength of pins by Matt Houck (over Nicholas Garcia at 145), Mike Artemus (over Jimmy Weir at 152) and Nick Hassett (over Jae Chun at 160).

Carson's Junior Valladares scored an 18-10 major over Frankie Christian at 171 before Damonte's Troy Kilgore pinned Carson's Ryan Hoskins to give the Mustangs a 24-10 lead.

Asked to sum up his squad, Reilly called the Mustangs "inexperienced. Immature. Naive."

"Last year means nothing. We are at zero right now," Reilly said. "We have to set a new tradition. We can't be running off what we did last year. It's a new era."

McCarthy was upbeat about Carson's win, aware of the perception that maybe his team was too inexperienced to make a run this year " his first season back in his third stint as head varsity coach.

"It's huge for us," McCarthy said. "We weren't considered to be one of the better teams to start the year out."

McCarthy said he was happy with his group's conditioning at this point of year.

"I definitely could see we were in better shape," he said. "We were tired in the third period also, but not as tired as (the Mustangs) seemed to be. It's fairly typical at the beginning of the season.

"We're young, but we're still Carson wrestling. We've been one of the top programs in the last 10-20 years. We're able to field a full team right now (34 wrestlers). Compared to Damonte and Manogue, they don't have the numbers we do. For duals, depth is the real key."

Carson will next compete in the Marty Manges Invitational Saturday, in Orangevale, Calif.

After traveling to Spanish Springs for a non-league dual on Dec. 27, the Senators will compete in the 96-team Sierra Nevada Classic Dec. 29-30.