Carson's Kyler Rudy tries to escape the grasp of Gabriel Castaneda of Yuma, Arizona's Cibola H.S. Friday morning at the Tournament of Champions in Reno.
RENO — The Reno Tournament of Champions is one tough event, and the young Carson High wrestling squad found that out on Friday.
Not one of the 11 wrestlers CHS coach Nick Redwine put on the mat at the Reno Event Center managed to make it to the second day.
“It’s tough to come away from this tournament and see anything but bad,” Redwine said. “Talking to the other coaches (Nick Schlager and Justin Barlow), all we can do is remember the matches we should have won; giving up a late pin or takedown, or getting pinned when we had the lead.
“I think the good we can take away is we have seen where we want to be. We have seen some elite competition and we’re not there yet, and I stress yet. We have a good list of stuff we need to work on. We’ll get back in the room and keep working hard. That is all we can do.”
Alex Wells (160), Bryce Newhall (170), and freshman Luis Mayoral (113) all went 2-2 on the day. Wells was the last wrestler to get eliminated, some 10 hours after the tournament kicked off at 9 a.m.
The three matches that Redwine was referring to involved freshman 106-pounder Ariel Vega, senior 138-pounder Kyle Rudy and 182-pounder Jesse Case, who has been the team’s top wrestler.
Vega, who went 0-2, had an 8-4 lead after a second-period takedown. He surrendered two third-period points on a takedown and then was pinned with 1:02 left in the match.
Case built an 11-4 lead, but made a tactical mistake and was pinned with 58 seconds left in the match.
Rudy, who split his first two matches (lost by pin and won a gritty 4-3 decision), gave up a takedown to Clovis West’s Isaiah Walls in the final 10 seconds of the match and dropped a heartbreaking 3-2 decision.
“You just can’t do that; can’t let that happen,” Schlager said after Rudy’s match. “You have to try to ride it out. Stall if you have to. Vega just got caught. I think Vega was the better wrestler.”
Case literally ran himself into a half-nelson and never recovered. He had dominated the second period. He never recovered in his second match, dropping a 5-3 decision. All of his points were on escapes.
The first round of matches was especially tough on Carson. The Senators, who didn’t field a wrestler at 120, 132 and 152, went 1-10. The only Carson wrestler to break through was Wells, a transfer from Reed. All but one of the 10 losses was by pin, and most were in the first period.
Wells fell behind Blanchard’s Dylan Berry 2-0 on a first-period takedown, but worked an escape and takedown in the second period to take a 3-2 lead into the last period. Berry appeared on the edge of scoring on Wells, but the CHS sophomore held him off.
“It feels great,” Wells said after the win. “Seeing everybody lose, before the match started I told the coaches I was going to win.
“I swung down on his leg (for the takedown). I got too high in the third period. I was glad I was able to hold on.”
Wells suffered a third-round pin in his championship bracket match, but bounced back nicely with an escape in the last 10 seconds of his first elimination match to grab a 7-5 win. He would lose his fourth match via pin.
Bryce Newhall (170) won two straight by pin before being pinned himself in his fourth match of the day.
Mayoral, who was pinned in his first-round match, came back with a 9-4 win and a 16-10 win before being pinned in his final match of the day.
Perkins, who lost via pin in the first round, won by technical fall (20-4) before he was eliminated via pin in his third match to finish 1-2.
Rudy had a disappointing first-round match, losing by pin. He came back strong in his first consolation match against Rio Rancho’s Keith Wilson. Rudy trailed 1-0 early in the second period, but worked a two-leg takedown. He fell behind 3-2 early in the third round, but scored two big points with 52 seconds left for the win.
In his last match, he led 2-0, but gave up three third-period points and lost.
Vega, Darryll Heyward (145), Case , Gurjant Mand (215), Ty Evans (195) and heavyweight Brandon Macias all went 0-2.