RENO -- With four years invested in the wrestling room, Carson High School senior Paul Carter was not about to be denied Saturday night.
Not only did Carter achieve his long-time dream of becoming a state championship, he did so in convincing style with a 12-5 victory against Cimarron-Memorial's Trevor Moore in the 140-pound weight class finals at the 4A state wrestling tournament before a crowd of more than 1,300 at Reno High School.
"I wanted it pretty bad," said Carter, who placed sixth in the 140-pound class at state last year. "I wasn't going to let anybody take it away from me. Not after all the hard work I put in."
Carter paid his dues because he spent his freshman and sophomore seasons waiting to crack Carson's lineup while he watched Justin Sarnowski and Doug Brooks, who won state titles in the 135- and 140-pound divisions in 2001. The countless practice sessions against Sarnowski and Brooks paid off Saturday.
"Practicing against two state champions sure helped," Carter said. "I'd been thinking about them. I couldn't let them be the only ones to have their names up on the wall."
Carson coach Dean Schmanski knows that feeling very well. After all, he was a state 145-pound champion for Carson in 1977.
"Paul wrestled very well and very smart," Schmanski said. "It was his match tonight. He was in control."
Carter scored an early takedown to lead 2-0 after the first period.
"I've changed my style over the last few weeks to try and be more aggressive," said Carter, who ended his season with a 31-7 record. "I try to score first and never let up."
He put it away with three takedowns in the third.
"Paul wrestles with a lot of tenacity," Schmanski said. "He never lets up. He was still going strong at the end so I think conditioning was important for all of our kids in this tournament. It was good to see all our work pay off."
Nick Shine also placed second in the 189-pound division, to go along with fourth-place performances from Allen Wooldridge at 215 pounds and Chris White at 130 pounds to help Carson finish seventh as a team. The Senators scored 87.5 points and finished just one-half point behind Green Valley in sixth.
One other Carson Country wrestler struck gold when Galena sophomore Joel Rivadeneyra pinned Centennial senior Chris Mercado in the 112-pound weight class finals. Rivadeneyra (52-3) got an early takedown and then turned Mercado for the pin in just 1:00.
Shine lost an 8-5 decision to Chris Gifford of Las Vegas in an all-junior 189-pound final. Gifford, 49-1 with 42 pins and nationally ranked coming into this season, scored on three takedowns and one reversal to win his second state title in as many years.
"The kid is very good. His mat time, mat presence and mat awareness, all that showed up tonight," Schmanski said. "I didn't think Nick wrestled his style tonight. He wasn't as aggressive as he had been in his earlier matches, but don't take anything away from him. Second at state as a junior is pretty good."
Shine was impressive getting to the finals when he pinned Centennial's Jerell Cephus. Shine gave up an early takedown, but then he tripped up Cephus and put the Sunset Region champion on his back for the fall with one minute left in the second period.
Douglas senior Grant Hall also reached the 171-pound finals, where he dropped a 17-3 decision to Durango's Joe Thompson.
"I wanted to try and get on top and wear him down, but I never got the chance," said Hall, who came in as the North's No. 2 seed. "It was still great to be here. I can't think of a better way to go out."
Also for Carson, Wooldridge lost a 6-0 decision in the semifinals to David Hales of Las Vegas, who went on to place second and medal at state for the third straight year.
White rebounded from an opening-round loss in the 130-pound class and won four straight matches before he lost 5-3 in the consolation finals to Spencer Christian of Galena. All of White's consolation bracket wins came by decision, one in overtime by a 13-11 score.
Christian lost a 5-4 decision on a last-second reversal in the semifinals to Cimarron-Memorial's Justin Orians, the eventual champion.
Galena's 135-pounder Micah Parker capped off his senior season with a medal when he was awarded a victory by injury default in the fifth-place match. For Parker, who also ran for Galena's state championship cross country team in 2001, it was 100th career victory.
Ryan Martinez also placed sixth at 112 pounds for Douglas. The junior lost his fifth-place match in overtime.
Galena finished eighth as a team with 82.5 points and Douglas was 17th with 36. Cimarron-Memorial scored 204.5 points to capture the team championship.
