The Douglas High wrestling team made its first appearance at the Big Valley Classic one to remember as the Tigers took home the third place trophy in a field of 57 teams from California and three others from Nevada.
The new Stockton Events Center in Stockton, Calif., was the venue for the second annual event which featured some of the highest-rated wrestlers in California from many of the perennial powers such as Central Catholic, Turlock, Granite Bay, and Vacaville.
Douglas was joined from Nevada by Reed, Bishop Manogue, and Hug.
Douglas, which has shown weakness in the later rounds of invitational style tournaments, started off strong and maintained a consistent point production throughout to finish third behind Turlock and champion Central Catholic.
Union Mine was fourth. Douglas was the only team in the top five without a full line-up, as once again the Tigers competed without a 103 pound or a heavyweight wrestler. All 12 Douglas wrestlers scored points in the tournament.
Leading the Douglas attack was senior Nico Barker who took home a silver medal after battling his way into the championship finals where he fell to Reno Tournament of Champions runner-up Cody Rodebaugh from San Lorenzo Valley.
Dillon Spates brought home the bronze medal in his weight class after reaching the championship semi-finals where he lost to tournament runner-up Isa Hurtado from Sheldon.
Eddie Kollar fought his way across a very tough consolation bracket to earn a seventh-place medal. Tim Souza and Michael Sepulveda were Douglas' final medalists as both wrestlers earned eighth.
Douglas also received important point production from Wes Peterson, Nick Prudhomme, Justin Freeman, Tyler Cook, Steve Anderson, Zach Falanga, and Pat Miller. The balanced scoring is a good sign for Douglas heading into the latter part of the season and the regional championship at Spanish Springs on Feb. 6 and 7.
Douglas hosts South Tahoe in a league dual tonight and travels to the Lawrence Miller Invitational in Martinez, Ca. this weekend.
