PREPS: Carson wrestlers eye regional meet

Fresh off winning its third consecutive Sierra League wrestling championship, Carson High has turned its attention to this weekend's regional meet scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Reno High School.

Action gets under way at 4 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The top three finishers in each weight class advance to the state tournament Feb. 18-19 at Spanish Springs.

A year ago, Carson finished a strong second to defending champ Spanish Springs, losing by just nine points. To duplicate that feat is going to take a lot of skill and just as much luck because Carson will leave anywhere from two to four weight classes vacant.

"It's going to be a pretty tall order," Carson coach Tim McCarthy said. "There are a few good teams out there this year, Spanish Springs, Reed and McQueen. They all have pretty good wrestlers at all 14 weights.

"We won't fill all of ours. In a couple of weights we had guys that would have gone 0-2. I left it up to a couple of individuals and they decided not to."

Let's take a weight-by-weight look at the Carson entrants:

103: Kyle Sharp

"Kyle should be in the top three," McCarthy said. "He beat a Spanish Springs kid who is a junior at the Fernley tournament. He started slow, but is really coming on. He's won like 18 of his last 20 matches."

112: Patrick Craugh

"He'll definitely move on," McCarthy said. "I expect to see him in the regional finals (against McQueen's Joseph DeLeon)."

119: Nicholas Lani

"He definitely has a shot (at state)," McCarthy said. "He has some tough kids in his weight class. There is the kid from Reno who is ranked nationally and Willy McDonald from Manogue may be in there."

125: Cole McCarthy

"He should qualify," said the elder McCarthy. " The toughest competitor is Alan Vasquez from North Valleys."

130: Ty Welch

"Ty wrestled Douglas' Dillon Spates well (recently)," McCarthy stated. "He showed a lot of character."

135: Andrew Cunningham

"Andrew has gotten a lot better," McCarthy said. "He's landed in a tough weight class." Translation? McCarthy would be thrilled if Cunningham could grab one victory and give the Senators some points.

140: Jordan Luhrs

"He has a solid chance," McCarthy said. "There are two really good guys in that weight class." Barring upsets that means there may be just one qualifying spot open.

145: Cody Cunningham

"He's a freshman and in a weight class where you usually find upper classmen," McCarthy said. Cunningham has his work cut out for him to qualify.

160: Nico Garcia

"He definitely should advance," McCarthy said. "The biggest competition will come from Steven Elicegui from Wooster and the kid (Ryan Carter) from Reed."

171: Aaron Lopez

McCarthy said he was unsure if Lopez would wrestle at press time. If he did, the first-year varsity wrestler would likely go 0-2 or 1-2.

189: Jon Ampudia

"He's a first-year wrestler," McCarthy said. "If he could get us a win I'd be happy."