Dooley, McCormick place at Calif. tournament

Competing in another tough regional tournament, the Greenwave sent two wrestlers to the podium.

Seniors Ben Dooley (285 pounds) took third and Sean McCormick (170) finished fourth in the Doc Buchanan tournament last weekend in Clovis, Calif. Junior Tommy McCormick was ruled out for the tournament due to a skin condition.

Fallon heads to Spring Creek this weekend. The Spartans’ tournament runs on Friday and Saturday and gives Fallon another strong look at teams from the Division 3A.

Dooley, ranked No. 3 in the tournament, opened with two-straight wins to advance to the semifinals.

Dooley pinned Mason Labahn (Rosenburg, Ore.) with 23 seconds left in the first period to open the tournament before scoring a 5-2 win over Randy Arriaga (Capistrano Valley, Calif.). In the semis, Dooley was pinned 40 seconds into the second period against second-ranked Nicholas Villarreal (Gilroy, Calif.).

Dooley rebounded with a 1-0 decision over Mike Mcnicholas (Montini Cathlolic, Ill.) in the consolation bracket before pinning Kaimana Wa’a (Crescent Valley, Ore.) at the 4:20 mark of the third-place bout.

McCormick, seeded sixth, opened with three wins to reach the semifinals.

McCormick pinned Jack Patti (Bergen Catholic, N.J.) at the 57-second mark in the first round before scoring an 11-2 win over Christian Landin (Frontier, Calif.), in the following round. McCormick took down No. 3 Christian Rodriguez, 6-3, in the third round to set up a semifinal bout with No. 2 Drake Engelking (Longmont, Colo.).

McCormick suffered a 3-2 loss to fall into the consolation but he picked up an 11-9 win over Mark Cardwell (Monache, Calif.) to advance to the third-place match. Rodriguez avenged his loss to McCormick by pinning the Greenwave wrestler at the 3:17 mark to take third.