RENO - It will be the Nico and Kyle Show at the final day of the 2011 Sierra Nevada Classic at the Reno Livestock Events Center.
Nico Garcia (182) and Kyle Sharp (106) are the only Carson wrestlers left in the two-day event that drew 97 teams from Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Montana.
The seventh-seeded Garcia is 3-0, and awaiting him in the quarterfinals is Nikko Reyes of Clovis West, who is seeded second in the tournament. Garcia won two matches by pin and one by decision (three points). Reyes is ranked No. 1 in the nation, according to Carson coach Tim McCarthy.
"Nico did very well," McCarthy said. "That last match was a bloodbath. He had to use almost all of his blood time. He was bleeding out of both nostrils. I think Nico has a chance to place high."
Sharp, who is seeded 10th, is 3-1 and will have to battle back through the consolation bracket. All three of his wins came via pin. His only loss came to Oakdale's Nico Colunga, who got the best of Sharp in the Riddle Tournament earlier this year in Oakdale.
"He's definitely a pinner," McCarthy said. "He's won 90 percent of his matches by pin. He's only had a couple of decisions."
McCarthy also was impressed with the efforts of Tristian Wadsworth (132) and Austin Brown (138). Both went 3-2 on the day.
"Besides Nico and Kyle, Tristian and Austin were the stories of the day," McCarthy said. "They changed weight classes this year (took one of the lighter weights and added a heavier weight), and that hurt Tristian. It's good to have some depth.
"I think Austin has turned the corner. I'm really happy for him."
Brown had a 12-1 win in his opening match where he absolutely mauled Jon Weiderhold of McQueen.
Adan Ortega (120), Sam Mercado (113), Nick Lani (126) and Patrick Cooke (220) all went 2-2. Jordan Luhrs (152) went 1-2.
McCarthy wasn't pleased, but not dipleased either. Only two wrestlers failed to win a match. It was kind of a middle-of-the-road performance.
"I think we always want to do better," McCarthy said in a telephone interview from the bowels of the arena. "There are a couple of kids, and I'm not going to dwell on it, who definitely need to get better. There were a number of kids disappointed in their performances today.
"This is a tough tournamernt, but there were lot of kids I think we should have beaten that we didn't. We had some good practices leading up to it."
Ortega very easily could have been 3-1. He won two by pin, but lost 8-5 to Max McReynolds of Bishop Manogue in a match McCarthy felt Ortega was capable of winning.
In Ortega's opening match, he elected to go from the down position in the second round, and quickly got a reversal to snap a 2-all tie for a 4-2 lead before winning by pin with 1:04 left in the second round.
"I looked at my coaches, and they told me to go down," Ortega said. "I tried a spiral move, but that didn't work and then I ued the barbed wire move and that did work."
After his loss to McReynolds, Ortega won his third match by pin.
Lani staved off elimination with an 8-6 overtime win in his second match. He won another consolation match before being eliminated.
Brady Rivera (160) was the first Carson casualty of the day. He trailed 4-0 when the referee ruled that he had committed a flagrant violation against his Union Mine opponent. Under tournament rules, he was DQ'd for the rest of the tournament.
Carson went into the event without Colby Brown (145) and Cole McCarthy (126). Brown was ill and McCarthy hasn't been cleared to wrestle after suffering an injury at the TOC last weekend at the Reno Events Center.
