Carson High’s David Remer had a goal of making it to the second day of the Reno Tournament of Champions. And since he made it to the second day, Remer decided to make the most of it.
Remer ran through the gauntlet of winning seven straight matches on his way to a fourth place finish on Saturday in one of the nation’s most prestigious tournaments at the Reno Events Center. Remer won four of those seven matches on Saturday.
His run came to an end in the third place match when he lost for the third time this season to Spanish Springs’ Colby Preston, who pinned Remer early in the third period. Preston also beat Remer in championship matches in tournaments at Winnemucca and Lovelock.
“One of these days we’ll figure out how to beat the Spanish Springs kid,” Carson coach Nick Redwine said. “Hopefully it will be in the state finals when we figure out how to beat the Spanish Springs kid.”
Remer began the tournament with a 6-5 loss to No. 6 seed Michael Cox of Columbia, Idaho. Remer actually finished ahead of Cox as Cox ended up wrestling for fifth.
“That’s really, really difficult to do,” said Redwine about Remer coming all the way back to finish fourth after losing his opening match. “He was outstanding. I don’t know what to think about it. I’m really proud of him. It’s amazing he did this.”
Remer began the day on Saturday with a 5-0 win over Diego Torres from Casteel, Ariz. “He won pretty easily,” Redwine said. “He was all over the kid.”
After that he pinned Jaxson Rhoden of Crook County, Ore., at the beginning of the second period. He went on to beat Laith Gilmore of Poway, Calif., 4-2 and then received a forfeit win to advance to the third place match.
“It feels pretty good. I’ve really never wrestled in this really big of a tournament before,” said Remer about making the second day of the TOC before his third place match. “It was amazing. What I just kept saying was every match was a winnable match, I’ve got to give myself the benefit of the doubt and I’ll win.
“It just flabbergasted me that I’ve made it this far. This is a really cool and great feeling.”