Abel Carter
Wrestlers from 13 states, including 11 Nevada schools, will converge on the Reno Events Center for the prestigious Tournament of Champions this weekend.
Action gets under way both Friday and Saturday at 9 a.m.
Carson, Fallon, Damonte Ranch, Reno, McQueen, Sprng Creek, Spanish Springs, Elko Wooster, Battle Mountain and Virgin Valley are entered.
Carson is coming off a fourth-place finish at the Cody Louk Invitational, an impressive showing considering the team was without Brandon Basa, Jake Roman and Sheldon Miller.
All three were taking the ACT, and Miller has also been injured but is expected to wrestle this weekend.
The TOC is a meat grinder where only the strong survive. Getting to the second day of this tournament is a monumental task.
On paper, Basa (113), Miller (heavyweight), Nathan Mersino (138) and Abel Carter (195) stand the best chance of advancing to Saturday.
Basa, who’s dropping down to 113, is off to a 6-0 start. Mersino, who’s 9-1 so far, went 2-2 at last year’s event. Miller is 2-1, and he hasn’t wrestled since the season-opening tournament in Fallon. Carter, who has jumped up two weight classes from last year, is 8-1
“Abel is really coming on,” first-year coach Keith Shaffer said. “A lot of his early matches he didn’t have to go past the first round. The match against the Spanish Springs kid went into the third round and I wanted to see if he was ready, and he was.”
Carter lost that match by a couple of points, but don’t even doubt his durability. He played both ways on the football field this year and dished out and absorbed a lot of contact.
Basa said he will wrestle at 113s pretty much the rest of the year.
“I’m going to do this tournament and the Sierra Nevada Classic at 113s,” he said. “I’m about 118 now (Monday), but I won’t have any trouble dropping down five pounds before the weekend.”
“We always planned on Brandon going 113s,” Shaffer said. “We’ll try to help him stay at 113.”
Miller went 1-2 last year, and no doubt would love to better that mark this weekend. His health will play a big role in determining that.
Roman has carved out a 6-1 record.
“He is so strong,” Shaffer said. “He’s such a hard worker.”
Kyle Rudy is 9-2 at 132 and Jesse Case is 11-3 at 170. Also wrestling well thus far is 220-pounder John Rowe (9-2).
Here’s the rest of the Carson lineup:
106: Eli Thomas 3-4
120: Johnny Lopez 3-3, 6th last week’s event.
126: Garrett Tibma, 3-7
145: Zach Bumby
152: Seth Reichelt 4-5
160: Jarod Butler 8-6
182: Kellen McDermott 6-4.
• Carson’s next tournament is the annual Sierra Nevada Classic Dec. 28-29 at the Reno Livestock Event Center.
