Carson's Nico Garcia wrestled his way to a fourth-place finish at the prestigious Reno Tournament of Champions on Saturday.
Coach Tim McCarthy said he believed it was Carson's highest finish ever at the meet.
Garcia opened the second day of the tournament with a 13-1 win over Spencer Theissen of Villa Park. With the win, Garcia moved to the semifinals against Westley Ruffer of Chester. Ruffer beat Garcia, 8-4, in a tight match. McCarthy said Garcia controlled the match but had a couple of bad breaks against Ruffer.
Garcia, the third seed, entered the wrestleback portion of the bracket, where he defeated Paul Head of La Costa Canyon, 6-4. McCarthy said Garcia wrestled his best match of the tournament against Head.
In the third-place match, Garcia lost a technical fall to Kyle Pope of Bakersfield. McCarthy called Pope, the four seed, "a beast."
"Hopefully, this will be a confidence boost," McCarthy said. "If he can place that high (at the TOC), hopefully, that will carry through to the Sierra Nevada Classic and for the rest of the year all the way to a state title."
Patrick Cooke also represented Carson on the second day of the tournament. Cooke, a transfer this year from New Mexico, lost by second round pin to Richard Durr of Ponway. Durr went on to capture third place, helping Ponway grab the tournament title.
McCarthy praised Cooke for making it to the second day of what is billed as the "Toughest Tournament in the USA."
Carson returns to action at another tough tournament, the Sierra Nevada Classic, on Dec. 28, 29.
JV Girls basketball
The Carson JV girls lost to the Virginia City varsity team, 45-43, on Saturday. Leading Carson was Gina Peacock with 15 points. Keagan Allen added 10 points for the 5-2 Senators.
Freshman girls Basketball
The Carson High girls freshman team defeated the Virginia City JV team, 46-13, on Saturday.
Leading scores for Carson were Maddi Preston with 15 points, Amanda Breen with seven points and Michelle Perry and Abbey Dudley with six points apiece. Natalie Young had five steals as Carson improved to 6-1.
JV WRESTLING
The Carson JV wrestling team had a strong showing at the North Valleys tournament on Saturday. Levi Carter won the 220-pound weight class, going 3-0. Kaleb Wold also was crowned champion at 106 pounds.
Placing second for Carson was Jose Calderon. Third-place finishers were Tristian Wadsworth, Austin Kiesow, Sean Robles, Alex Cunningham and Edward Zinda. Skylar Schilling finished fourth.
Carson is off until it hosts a JV tournament on Jan. 7.
Tigers end tourney on a high note
By Joey Crandall
jcrandall@recordcourier.com
RENO - The Douglas boys' basketball team closed out the prestigious Wild West Shootout on Saturday with a 62-61 win over highly-touted Inglewood, Calif.
Douglas went 2-2 in the tournament, 3-2 in its five-games-in-five-days stretch and improved to 7-2 on the year with the win.
"We got down early again and battled back," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "We were down 12-7 after the first quarter but outscored them 20-12 in the second. The defense came up big in the second quarter."
For the second time in the tournament, Douglas had to play long stretches without standout forward Hunter Myers, who got into foul trouble early and fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
"We had guys step up, which is what we have been looking for," Thacker said. "Matt Wylie had a great game. Trevor Shaffer and Nick Maestretti had big games. Trevor and Nick had great tournaments overall."
With the score tied at 60 with time running out, Douglas 6-10 sophomore James Herrick drew a foul and sank both free throws. The Tigers made the lead stick from there.
"We just came into this tournament wanting to compete every day," Thacker said. "I thought we played five great games and learned a lot about ourselves. I was proud of our guys, you could tell they were tired, but they didn't give up. They just kept battling back.
"These guys just keep going. We need to get tougher defensively, we need more of a killer instinct on offense and we still need more guys to step up and score, but we're getting there."
