Brandon Basa and Sheldon Miller hold up their brackets from the state wrestling tournament.
SPARKS — The drought is over for the Carson High wrestling program.
Brandon Basa (113) and Sheldon Miller (heavyweight) brought home championships with impressive pins. The last CHS champion was Niko Garcia back in 2012, and the last time Carson had two champions in the same year was back in 2001 when Justin Sarnowski and Doug Brooks triumphed.
The wins by Miller and Basa plus Abel Carter’s third-place finish at 195 enabled Carson to finish fifth overall among the 4A teams with 77 points. Green Valley (152), Spanish Springs (125), Las Vegas (84.5) and Reno (81.5) took the top four spots.
Miller needed just 20 seconds to pin Centennial’s Arath Rangel, who had beaten Miller before. Basa needed just 70 seconds to dispose of Spanish Springs’ Owen Jones. Impressive performances to say the least, and a great way to end your high school wrestling careers.
“I felt I wrestled great in the final because I knew what he was going to do,” Miller said. “I just watched my weight (overnight) and took my shot. Right now I feel no different.”
“Both Miller and Basa met guys that had beaten them before and that they had a history with,” Carson head coach Keith Shaffer said. “That can be the toughest thing to get over in your head, but they didn’t let that bother them.”
Miller didn’t have to wrestle more than 50 seconds in any one of his three matches. He and Basa won all three matches by pin. Basa came out aggressive and chalked up his second win over Jones in as many weeks. He was a little more aggressive than usual, going on the offensive from the outset.
The consolation rounds weren’t kind to the Senators, as Kyle Rudy (132), Jarod Butler (160) and Nathan Mersino (138) were eliminated on Saturday.
Only Abel Carter was able to advance to the consolation finals, and he did so in impressive fashion. pinning Green Valley’s Cody Crochet in the third round after building up a 17-4 lead.
Carter led 2-0 after first period, but then scored nine of the next 11 points to build an 11-2 lead after two periods.
The only points he allowed in the match were on escapes or when he cut his opponent loose.
In the third-place match, Carter rolled to an easy 13-6 win over Casey Preston of Spanish Springs.
“Abel looked great today,” Schaffer said. “He was light on his feet and hit his shots several times. It made all the difference that he was the initiator. He really looked good, and I think this will give him the confidence to build on for the future.”
Mersino, after his 7-3 win in the quarterfinals, only scored two points in his next two matches. He lost 13-0 late Friday, and lost 10-2 to Desmond Bowers of Green Valley in the consolation semis.
“Mersino ran into an all-around solid wrestler who was very quick on his feet,” Shaffer said.
“He got the upper hand on Nate early which I think surprised Nate. Nate never quit trying. He was disappointed to not medal here as it was his last shot at state. It is tough for the seniors when they get so close. Sometimes the conso semifinals are the toughest because the result means placing or not.”
Rudy fell behind 5-0 early, and trailed 5-1 when he was pinned by Daniel Lee at 3:34.
‘Rudy wrestled really hard, but his opponent was really strong,” Shaffer said. “Rudy showed good confidence, but just didn’t have enough moves or strength to carry him through to the end.”
Butler was pinned by Jakob Alvarado at 3-minutes 46-seconds, giving him a 1-2 record in his first-ever state appearance.
