Hornbeak, Melendy capture regional wrestling titles

Six Greenwave wrestlers, including a pair of regional champions, qualified for this week’s Class 3A state tournament.

Senior Quentin Hornbeak (165 pounds) and sophomore Carson Melendy (138) each won their weight class in the 3A North regional tournament on Saturday in Spring Creek. Evan Mackuliak (113) and Lonnie Adams (132) each took second, and Manuel Barros (106) and Jaiden McFadden (113) each finished fourth as the top four advanced.

Senior Keliah Brady will also wrestle in the state tournament after she finished fourth in the girls regional two weeks ago.

The state tournament will take place Friday at the Anderson Auto Group Fieldhouse in Bullhead City, Ariz., about 20 minutes away from the state border. All classes, including the 1A/2A, 3A, 4A (south only), 5A and girls, will wrestle under the same roof.

Elko, which is going for its third state title in a row under ex-Fallon coach Mitch Overlie, won the regional tournament over Fernley, 287-190. Lowry finished third with 179 points followed by Spring Creek with 153 and Fallon with 141.5.

Melendy became Fallon’s first freshman to win the state title since Sean McCormick in 2016 when he took home the gold last winter in Winnemucca. He pinned his first three opponents in last weekend’s regional tournament, including the first two in the opening period, before decisioning Elko’s Kody Goss, 5-1.

After not placing in last year’s regional tournament, Hornbeak made sure that wouldn’t happen again.

Hornbeak pinned Fernley’s Anthony Robles with 39 seconds left in the second period to win his division on Saturday. Hornbeak opened the tournament with a fall before a 9-6 decision over North Valleys’ Daniel Wallace in the semifinals.

Mackuliak pinned his first two opponents to advance to the championship against Lowry’s Kruz Gomez. The Buckaroo, though, pinned Mackuliak with 39 seconds left in the first period.

In a stacked 132-pound division that featured two championship rounds before the quarterfinals, Adams won his first four bouts by fall with all but one coming in the first period. Adams pinned his first opponent in 19 seconds and later Elko’s Demetrius Ruiz with seven seconds left in the first period of his semifinal match. Fernley’s Nathan Pritchard took down the Fallon grappler with a 13-2 major decision for the title.

Barros won his first match to advance to the semifinals before falling to Lowry’s Pete Bengochea. Barros, though, won his consolation semifinal by technical fall over South Tahoe’s Jack Bergquist before falling to Elko’s Bradley Nelson in the third-place bout.

McFadden won his first two matches by fall before falling to Pritchard in the semifinals. McFadden’s fall over Truckee’s Jack Ridgel advanced him to the third-place bout where he lost to Ruiz.

Despite not placing in the top four, four wrestlers still medaled with Evan Garcia (120) and Troy Shelton (157) taking fifth and Maximillion Dahl (120) and Andre Green (126) finishing sixth.

Garcia made it to the semifinals before a loss in the consolation semifinals dropped him into the fifth-place match that he won with a 4-2 decision over teammate Dahl. Like Garcia, Shelton lost in the semifinals, a 9-3 decision to Elko’s Treagan Hansen, and then fell in the consolation semifinals before pinning North Valleys’ Sione Fonohea. Green dropped his first match before winning two in a row in the consolation. He lost 7-0 to Wooster’s Matthew O’Brien in the consolation semifinals before falling in the fifth-place match.

Rio Segura (126), Andrew Douglas (138), Caden McKnight (144), Manuel Karraway (150), Colton Blankenship (175), Jason Lewis (190), Tyson Wilson (215) and Sean Reeder (285) fell one win short of wrestling for a medal. Garcia and Shelton, though, were named alternates for state.