The Greenwave varsity wrestling team proved its can hold its own on the home turf in the Wilkens/Stockman’s Invitational Saturday, losing only to Carson but defeating Silver Springs, Galena, Reed and Yerington.
The Carson Senators captured the tournament with a 5-0 record, but the Wave followed close behind with a 4-1 record near the top. Carson beat the Wave 42-21, but the Wave won a 60-6 victory against Silver Springs, a 53-12 victory over Galena, a 45-12 victory over Reed and a 44-30 victory against Yerington.
This week the Wave heads to Las Vegas for the Arbor View Tournament from Friday to Saturday where they will be stacked against several Division 1 teams.
Fallon coach Trevor de Braga said he felt it was a good start to the season.
“We started out a little sluggish against Carson and that was the first actual dual.” de Braga said. “The kids picked it up. I had a big talk with them after. We were just making errors that would all be day one mistakes, and it was all fixable stuff. So we talked about it, and we fixed it, and it turned out great. They all had some tough kids and we had some tough matches but overall we came out with a win on those.”
De Braga said the majority of the mistakes that his boys made were first-time mistakes such as taking big steps to finish a shot, hand control when his wrestlers were on bottom, not executing when the Wave got a bar arm and other simple mistakes expected of a team’s first match.
“It’s all simple stuff,” he said, “but it’s in wrestling that you’re working one move after the next. You’re always looking to score out of every position.”
Though there were some close calls and some tough matches, de Braga said Fallon’s players seemed like they had a lot more conditioning on top of other teams, and for finishing those tough matches and pushing through adversity, he was happy with the way the Wave competed.
The invitational was also a chance for de Braga to scope out a few other teams from the Northern Division 1-A that would stand out for the rest of the season. He said that Carson definitely stood out among those the Wave faced.
This year, Carson High varsity wrestling is under the tutelage of new head coach Justin Shine, whom de Braga said he believes is doing well with the team thus far.
De Braga also said Yerington is always tough with grapplers bred similar to Fallon’s country boys, while Galena seemed liked a young team with much potential similar to Silver Springs whom de Braga said seemed to lack numbers.
Reed, de Braga said, has veteran coaches to guide it this year and some kids who are alreqady looking like they’re going to be great state competitors.
When asked which wrestlers from Fallon really stood out this weekend, de Braga said his seniors and returning state champions wrestled exactly as he had hoped, and even the younger kids who were more on edge were impressive.
Though de Braga said that no one player stood out among the rest, he also said that Trae Workman, Jack Swisher and Sam Goings, his returning state competitors, were dominant. Workman and Goings won their first matches against Carson opponents, both 6-0, and would continue to win throughout the morning. While Swisher took some time to pick up speed by losing his first match to Carson’s Darryll Haywerd 6-0, Swisher went on to win three consecutive 6-0 matches with Silver Springs, Galena and Reed, and won a 5-0 bout with an opponent from Yerington.
“Swisher wrestled a kid from Carson that had been at the state competition for two or three years since he’s a senior now,” de Braga said. “Jack did great, but he made one mistake, and that one was what led to a pin against him. It was little things, not something that the kid was better at. Jack got too high when he was on top, got his hips too high and the kid pulled Jack over and pinned him.
“But Workman and Goings were very dominant too. Those were the three kids that I’m thinking big things for this year. I’m thinking big for the whole team of course, but those are the three kids that have the experience and that have been at the top of the podium.”
Overall, de Braga said the meet was tough.
“It was good to see our kids go out against those other division teams and not back down, so it was a great turnout,” he added.
De Braga also said senior Juan Ladesma wrestled well at the invitational, though he was excluded from the scrimmage in Reno prior to the invitational because of missing a week of practice.
“He’s a kid that I saw great potential in last year,” he said, “ and he still has it. He’s strong, tough, but he’s just a little raw and needs a little more work. But he works hard at practice when he’s there and I see big things for him too.
The Arbor View Tournament this weekend features only one D1-A team, Virgin Valley, with the rest being Division 1 schools including Arbor View High School, whom de Braga said would be tough.
“They got great experience all through the lineup,” he said. “Their coach has wrestled for years and still competes in open tournaments, so no one’s going to be a given down there, especially them. When you go up against those bigger teams, everyone wrestles better though.
“There’s not going to be any light matches, and you’ve just got to compete. I’m pretty good about jotting stuff down when I see our kids making mistakes or when I see something that our kids need to improve on. We work the kids hard. Repetition and repetition is big with all of those little mistakes and even the things that we’re doing good we keep sharp on.