Staff Reports
Nick Shine continued his dominating performance in the early season to lead a strong effort by the Carson High wrestling team at Reno's Tournament of Champions on Friday.
Shine won all three of his matches by pin on Friday to run his season record to 15-0 at 215 pounds. In the process, Shine advanced to today's quarterfinals, keeping his chances for a title alive.
While Shine is the only Carson wrestler with a chance at a title, three other Senator wrestlers are still alive with a chance to finish in the top eight: Eric Aguilera (125), Chris Ceccarelli (189) and Joe Roman (171).
Roman won his next match in overtime to stay alive and then won his last match 15-0. His next match could be against a wrestler from Gilroy who beat him 4-3 in the finals of last weekend's Coast Classic.
Ceccarelli lost his first match, but came back to win his next four matches. Aguilera is 3-1.
Other wrestlers who came close to advancing to today were heavyweight Jason Klug, who went 2-2 and Travis Lamborn (140), who went 3-2.
"I'm impressed with Lamborn," Carson coach Dean Schmanski said. "He wrestled tough, smart matches."
Loren Wooldridge (160) also nearly made it today as he went 3-2. "He's still fighting the flu a little bit," Schmanski said. "I even questioned him wrestling."
Others to win before being eliminated were Robbie Bozin (112), Kevin Riggin (130) and Micah Whitcome (152).
Schmanski said at one point his team was near the top 30 and ahead of Fallon and Cimarron-Memorial. The tournament features more than 80 schools from across the country.
"If we're in the top 50, I'll be happy," Schmanski said. "There's some tough schools. The boys have wrestled well."
