Wrestlers take 4th at Lowry

The Douglas Tiger wrestling team made their annual trek to Winnemucca last weekend to participate the Cody Louk Memorial Invitational tournament hosted by Lowry High School. 

The Tigers, ranked No. 1 in the north, were without a 103-pound wrestler and 112-pounder Dillon Spates was unable to participate due to illness.

Douglas wrestled well early, placing nine in the championship quarterfinals.

The Tigers saw six wrestlers move to the consolation bracket and their team championship chances slipped away.

In the consolation bracket Tim Souza (119) won four straight matches en route to a third place finish.

Wes Peterson (125) advanced to the championship semi-finals before falling to Lowry's Jace Billingsley 10-2 and dropping into the consolation bracket where he won out to place third.

At 130 pounds, Douglas junior Michael Sepulveda won his final match of the tournament to claim fifth place after a tough loss in the quarter finals to Nampa High's Kerek Hansen. Senior Eddie Kollar (145) lost to No. 1 seed AJ Swartzlander from Lakeview, Ore. in the semis, but battled hard in the consolation finals to claim Douglas' third bronze medal of the tournament.

Douglas senior Nico Barker(140) took home a first place medal as he went 5-0 as the No. 3 seed and recorded a technical fall over Battle Mountain's 2007-08 2A state champion Kasey Jones 16-1 in the championship final.

Barker was also named the tournament's most outstanding wrestler in the lightweight division.

Douglas took fourth as a team behind Reno, Lowry, and Nampa. Douglas moves on to the 90-plus team Sierra Nevada Classic Dec. 29-30  at the Reno Livestock Events Center.  Wrestling begins at 9:00 a.m. on Monday.