Carson rolls over Douglas to improve to 6-0

Carson High's wrestling team easily kept its two dual-meet win streaks alive Wednesday night on Senior Night at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

Thanks to five forfeits and impressive wins by Nick Schlager, Nicolas Garcia, Jordan Luhrs , Luke Carter and Ricky Ugarte topped Douglas 48-17 to run its record to 6-0 in Sierra League dual meets. It was Carson's 23rd straight dual-meet win.

"The kids do get up for Douglas," Carson coach Tim McCarthy said. "Unfortunately they were missing some weights."

The forfeits put Douglas into a 30-5 hole after seven matches.

"It's a hard sport to come back from a 30-0 deficit," said Douglas coach Justin Shine, who is a Carson High graduate. "There were five spots we gave up points."

Of Douglas' four wins on the night, three came on the mats. Ryan Miller (215), Dillon Spates (125) and Austin Martin (130) all posted impressive victories.

Miller's pin of Ryan Hoskins cut Carson's early lead to 9-5. The Tigers had a team point taken away because of improper bench behavior.

It was 2-all and then Miller got a takedown for a 4-2 lead. The pin came in the latter stages of the first period.

"That's the first time he (Miller) has been able to get down to 215," Shine said. "He's been at 218 or 219 most of the year. He's so much stronger (and quicker) at 215. That is probably the match we could hang our hat on tonight."

After that it was all Carson. The Senators won eight of the remaining 11 matches.

Three forfeit wins followed Miller's pin, as the Senators led 27-5. That set the stage for one of Carson's big wins as Ugarte knocked off Wesley Peterson 2-1 at 119 pounds for a 30-5 lead. Peterson was second in the region at 125 pounds last year.

After a scoreless first period, Ugarte worked a takedown for a 2-0 lead. The score stayed the same for the remainder of the period. Peterson worked an escape to narrow the deficit to 2-1, but as unable to get a takedown that would have put him ahead.

"I wrestled him in the off-season and won 8-4," Ugarte said. "His stance was a lot better. A lot of my shots didn't finish. He's a tough kid. This was a pretty big win."

"The offseason is a little different," McCarthy said. "Ricky beat a quality opponent. Ricky needs to make sure he still has the same fire that he had tonight in two weeks at regionals."

Douglas' Dillon Spates (125) and Austin Martin (130) posted victories to make it 30-12. Spates pounded Austin Brown 14-5. Brown wrestled gamely and saved his team two points by staying off his back. Martin cruised to a 7-0 lead before giving up a second-period reversal to Ty Welch.

The Tigers moved Michael Sepulveda up a weight to take on Nick Schlager at 135, but that move backfired badly. Schlager rolled to a 7-0 lead before recording a pin with 31.9 left in the second period to make it 36-12.

Jordan Luhrs followed with a 9-2 win over Daniel Lundergreen at 140 pounds, and earned some kudos from his coach in the process. The only points Lundergreen scored were on escapes.

"He's definitely shown huge improvement," McCarthy said. "He seems to get better every week. He's been in our Bulldogs' program for six or so years so he's not new to wrestling. He's just now coming into his own as a varsity high school wrestler."

Garcia made it 42-12 with an 8-4 win over Cody Spates.

After a scoreless first period, Spates had a 4-3 lead after an escape. Garcia managed to get a two-point takedown in the waning seconds of the period to take a 5-4 lead, which he never relinquished.

"I felt he was going to try and throw me, and I was just waiting for it, so I could counter," Garcia said. "It ended up working pretty well. That put me ahead, and I knew I could ride him. I had a feeling they would move him up a weight to face me and get some points."

The final two matches were forfeited, one by each school.

NOTES: Carson travels to Auburn for the Placer Duals on Saturday... Carson closes out its Sierra League season by hosting South Tahoe next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. ... Junior Valladares, coming off a third-place finish last weekend, wrestled an exhibition match against 160-pounder Kyle Matthews and won easily.