Carson wrestlers in first place after opening day of regionals

Carson High is sitting in perfect position after the first day of the NIAA 4A regional wrestling tournament at Morse Burley Gym.

All 13 Carson wrestlers are still alive entering today's action which kicks off with semifinals at 10 a.m. The finals are set for 3:30 p.m. The top three in each weight class advance to the state meet next weekend at UNLV's Cox Pavilion.

The Senators, who scored 75.5 points, hold a 13.50-point lead over favorite Spanish Springs (62). Reed is third with 58 and Galena is fourth with 53.

Patrick Cooke (220), Brady Rivera (170) and Kyle Sharp (106) were the only CHS wrestlers to go 2-0. Sammy Mercado (113). Adan Ortega (120), Cole McCarthy (126), Nicholas Lani (132), Austin Brown (138), Jordan Luhrs (152), Nico Garcia (182) and Brayan Burgos (heavyweight) were all 1-0 after first-round byes. Colby Brown (145) went 2-1 and Javier Torres (195) went 1-1.

In fact, Brown needed a pin with 33 second left to advance to today. Torres had a pin in his second match with 10 seconds left to remain alive.

"It went very well today," Carson coach Tim McCarthy said. "I don't know if it means we wrestled really well or not. Sometimes you win even though you don't wrestle well. In a big tournament like this, it's important to get wins."

Not just wins, but pins. The Senators, who went 17-2 on the day, were pinning machines. Of Carson's 17 wins, 12 came by fall and one was a 15-0 technical fall by Austin Brown.

It was as if the Senators were trying to outdo each other.

Sharp, who faces McQueen's Austin Sweet in today's semis, started the day with a 12-second pin of Manogue's Cody Tilton, and followed it up later with a 20-second fall against Reno's Payton Tsukamoto. Lani had the fastest pin of the day, an 11-second fall against Reed's Brady Wood. Rivera recorded a 47-second fall against Galena's Taylor Alt.

"Sometimes we'll have a bet to see who can win (the most) without wrestling a full match," Cole McCarthy said.

"Or we see who can get the fastest pin," Sharp said. "I just want to make it to state. I was hoping for harder matches today. I've wrestled Sweet before in club wrestling. He's a lot better since the last time I saw him."

Lani's pin was so quick, his parents who were working at the scoring table, missed it. Lani now faces Wooster's Dan Morrisey.

"It was a tootsie roll," Lani said. "I just pulled his head down. I borrowed Cole's move. I've beaten him (Morrisey) before. He wanted a rematch."

Rivera, a freshman, wasn't surprised to be 2-0. He had an easy match in the first round before racking up a 6-2 win over McQueen's Shawn Ramos. Rivera gets two-time state champ Steve Elicegui in his next match.

The Rivera-Ramos match was hard fought throughout. Rivera led 2-0 after one thanks to a takedown. He increased his lead by a point with a second-round escape. Rivera made it 5-0 with a takedown in the third round. Ramos got a reversal to make it 5-2, but Brady escaped late in the match to complete the scoring.

McQueen's coaches were imploring the official to call stalling on Rivera, who seemed to be content to stay on the bottom and not create movement.

"I like to call it strategic offense," Rivera said. After a little prodding, Rivera admitted he "may" have been stalling to run out the clock.

The youngster, who went 9-11 in the regular season, credits hard work in practice.

"I've been practicing harder than I ever have," Rivera said. "Nico (Garcia) has been pushing me in practice."

Luhrs had one of the biggest wins of the day when he pinned Spanish Springs' Tony Paccella in the third round after building an 8-6 lead.

"I think I could have done better," Luhrs said. "I was a little bit burnt out. I warmed up too early. I should have waited a couple of more weight classes before I started to warm up."

Luhrs fell behind 5-2, but worked it back to a 6-all tie thanks to a couple of takedown. He went ahead 8-6 with another takedown before finishing off the match.

Cooke, who was seeded third on the Sierra side, won by pin in the first round against Dakota Freshman of Wooster. He then went against Josh Ramos of McQueen and pulled out an 8-7 overtime win.

Cooke led 6-4, but Ramos tied the match with a takedown late in the third period. After regulation the match was tied at 6.

Neither wrestler scored in the sudden-death overtime. Under high school rules, two additional 30-second periods are wrestled to their entirety. Both wrestlers scored a point in the second OT. In the third OT, Cooke chose to be on the bottom and quickly worked an escape to win the match.

"It's easier to get up and out than it is to get somebody down," Cooke said. "I made some mistakes that put me in a bad spot."

Austin Brown, Carson's 138-pound senior, led 5-0 after one period against Reed's Jason Hallahan, and then really went off in the second period with 10 unanswered points before the match was stopped.

Cole McCarthy had a 2-0 lead before recording his pin, while Garcia had a 12-0 lead before recording his fall in the second period. Burgos' match was tied at 2 and then he put Spanish Springs' Chase Haulder on his back with 43 seconds left in the first period.