Carson wins Albany Invitational

ALBANY, Calif. - Doug Brooks highlighted five first-place finishes for Carson High School and took home a top award as the Senators won the team competition at the Albany Invitational on Saturday.

Brooks was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler after winning first place at 140 pounds.

"It was nice to see him win that," Carson coach Tim McCarthy said. "We had six kids in the finals, and that's pretty rare for a 23-team tournament."

Justin Sarnowski (130), Justin Shine (135), Branden Lamborn (160) and Ben Johnson (215) also won first place for the Senators, who ran away with the team competition with 224 points. Terra Linda was second with 152, and Alhambra was third with 165.

Justin LaPorte was second at 145 pounds, and Dan Dunbar took third at 189. Chris Kotter (125) and Jeff Scanlan (HWT) took home fifth-place finishes.

Carson next hosts McQueen and Reed in duals on Wednesday. Junior varsity starts at 4 p.m., and varsity follows.

McCarthy said he feels like his team is turning around after a tough finish in their last dual meet. The Senators fell to both Galena and Fallon back on Jan. 12, but since then took second at the Sparks Invitational and then first last weekend.

"We've had a dramatic turnaround in the last few days," McCarthy said. "This was a pretty good tournament for us, because it gave some of our less-experienced kids a chance to get some wins and bring home some medals."