Sean Molina's dream senior season continued Saturday evening as he upset top-seeded Miles Wallace out of South Tahoe to take the 189-pound title at the Northern 4A Regional Championships at Hug High School.
Molina and Douglas junior Tony Ferris (171 pounds) each claimed regional titles for the Tigers as Douglas came up just short in the team standings with 175.5 points, placing second to Carson High's 187 points.
Molina was coming off a strong football season in which he was named the Sierra League's Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team all-Northern 4A defensive linemen.
He also defended Douglas' claim on the class after Shane Miller won the 189-pound title last year.
He opened the tournament by pinning Carson's Garrett Truesdell in 2:17. He then pinned Fallon's Clint Riggins in 1:56 and topped McQueen's Darrin Gooch 4-1 in the semifinals.
Against Wallace, he held on for an 8-7 win to take the title.
Ferris came in as the top seed out of the Sierra League inthe 171-pound class and recorded pins in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches before taking a 12-9 decision over Damonte Ranch's Micah Chalk in the championship round.
Overall, Douglas had six wrestlers qualify for this weekend's state championships at Spanish Springs High School, which is the exact numer coach Lamont McCann said he was hoping to get in for the Tigers.
Seniors Devin Barker (140), Ryan Pruitt (152) and Jake Williams (160) each took the silver medal in their respective classes and Garrett Hekhuis took bronze in the 112-pound class.
Barker pinned North Valleys' Mitch VanRonk in the opening round, scored a major decision over Reno's Eliot Canak and topped Spanish Springs' Brady Flinchum in the semifinals. Damonte Ranch's Brock Frank won the title bout 13-5.
Pruitt had three pins to advance to the championship match but fell 9-3 to Damonte Ranch's Trey Edmunds in the final.
Williams had a 15-8 decision over Reno's Oliver Utley and a technical fall over Elko's Zach Stetler before pinning Manogue's Jered Snow in the semifinals. He was pinned in the third period by Carson's Travis Lamborn in the championship match.
Hekhuis had a techical fall in the first round over Elko's Josh Garvin but lost to Carson's Owen Craugh in the second.
He then topped McQueen's Riley Frazier 5-3 and put together another technical fall over Garvin in the consolation final for third place.
Ryan Olsen (119), Nico Barker (125) and Nick Ceglia (145) each finished fourth in the tournament.
Damonte Ranch, Fallon and Galena tied for the region lead in individual champions with three each, but finished third, fourth and fifth respectively overall.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
