Nothing is sure in sports, so they still have to conduct the NIAA 4A State Wrestling Championships on Friday and Saturday in Winnemucca.
But the Cimarron-Memorial wrestling team is about as sure of a best as there is to defend its state title this weekend. It figures to be a wide open race for second with schools such as Las Vegas, Green Valley, Palo Verde, Fallon and Galena in the mix.
Carson High can't be counted out as a team that could possible challenge for second. But with only six wrestlers going this weekend that will count in the team scoring, if the Senators can even pull off a top five finish as a team, it would be a major accomplishment.
"That may be a pretty tall order," said Carson co-coach Tim McCarthy about his team placing in the top five.
It figures that all six Carson wrestlers will have to at least place in the top four for the Senators to have any shot at taking second. But it's possible as all six Senators could place.
Actually the Senators have seven wrestlers in this weekend's state event. But Owen Craugh at 103 pounds will not count toward the team standings because he didn't come into the Northern 4A meet as the Senators top wrestler at that weight. Craugh went on to win the Northern 4A title.
This was the first year that teams were allowed to use more than one wrestler in a weight class and the NIAA may want to look at allowing a team to use the points from whichever wrestler finished the highest in the team standings.
"That might be something that I bring up at the coaches meeting. Can we change it for this year," said McCarthy jokingly about Craugh's performance counting in the team standings.
The Senators are coming off a Northern 4A meet in which virtually everything went wrong. Along with not being able to use Craugh's points, Carson had one wrestler disqualified, another wrestler unable to continue due to health reasons and lost three points over sportsmanship.
"I don't have the best of luck at that tournament," said McCarthy about his run in the Northern 4A meet.
Despite all of Carson's troubles, the Senators still finished second, losing the team title by just 16 points to Fallon.
"It was really amazing that we lost by 16 points," McCarthy said. "If we would have had things go the way they should have we would have won comfortably."
Carson has two wrestlers - Robbie Bozin at 119 and David Cadwallader at 215 who could have shots at winning state titles. Bozin settled for second at zone after losing to Galena's Kevin Gerow in the finals. Cadwallader won the zone title last weekend.
"If they're both on their game I don't see why not," said McCarthy about Bozin and Cadwallader winning state.
Adam Carmazzi (112), Kyle Banko (125) and Loren Wooldridge (152) all finished third at zone to qualify for state. Banko and Wooldridge must wrestle in a pigtail match to stay in the tournament. If they lose in the pigtail, they're eliminated.
Wooldridge, though, actually has received a favorable draw and could be heading for a rematch with Fallon's Tommy Diaz in an all-Northern final. Diaz beat Wooldridge in last week's zone final.
"If he wrestles the way we've seen him wrestle before he's got a shot of being in the finals," McCarthy said.
Carson also has Travis Lamborn at 160. Even though Lamborn is the zone champion, he received a brutal draw. If he wins his first match, he would have to face Cimarron's Bubby Musser, who's arguably the best wrestler in the tournament. So on paper, Lamborn is looking at a third place finish.
"He's going to have to pull off an upset in the semifinals but he can do it," McCarthy said.
McCarthy said Carmazzi, Banko and Craugh all have the potential to place as well. "Banko is probably since the beginning of the year the kids that has improved the most," McCarthy said. "He could be dangerous."
