Douglas High senior Cody Highfill works atop an opponent, during the second annual Steve Deaton Memorial Tournament Saturday. Highfill went 4-0 at 120 pounds, winning the bracket.
Photo by Ron Harpin.
Douglas High School wrestling put together a third place finish as a varsity squad Saturday in its second annual home tournament – the Steve Deaton Memorial.
Cody Highfill continues to surge in his senior year at 120 pounds, winning his bracket in impressive fashion.
The senior went 4-0 and, in some sense, didn’t have to break a sweat, winning his first two matches by technical fall before pinning his opponent in the semifinal in 60 seconds.
In the championship match at 120, Highfill dictated the action en route to a 15-2 major decision.
“I focus on the control aspect. Its my biggest piece and it helps me dominate the match,” Highfill said. “Me being a senior and its my home tournament, you know it’s a big deal. I got third last year. I didn’t get a chance to win. … Kind of redeemed myself in a way because it was really important to me.”
Highfill, who is 27-6 this season per TrackWrestling, says he feels like he’s jumped levels from previous years being able to compete on a healthy shoulder after a surgery a little over a year ago.
All six of Highfill’s losses this winter have come against wrestlers outside of the state of Nevada, according to TrackWrestling.
At 150 pounds, Kolton Zinn cruised into the championship as well with a decision win in the opening round (11-5) followed by two pins.
Zinn went the full six minutes with Pershing County’s Israel Knight in the title match, but came out on the wrong end of a 12-5 decision, finishing in second place.
“I changed my mindset from what I’ve been having the last few tournaments. We’ve been going to some hammer tournaments the past few weeks and I was so focused on results,” said Zinn. “I got nothing else to lose. This is my last ride before I head off to college so I just got to let it fly this year.”
At 175 pounds, Izaak Conkle put together a 4-1 record, bouncing back from a quarterfinal loss by winning his next four matches by pin.
All four of Conkle’s pins came in 2:34 or less as he finished in third place.
Senior Caden Martin was fourth overall at 215 pounds going 4-2 with a win by pin (3:29) and major decision (11-3) to make it into the third-place match.
As a team, Douglas took third with 115 team points behind Lowry (183) and McQueen (170).
On the girls side, Douglas also was third as a unit with 61 team points, finishing behind Spanish Springs (129.5) and South Tahoe (82).
Ella Kavanagh and Jasmine Tamondong both won their brackets at 105 and 115 pounds, respectively.
Kavanagh pinned every opponent she faced in 2:23 or less while Tamondong was equally impressive with three wins by pin in 2:35 or less.
River Klein was second at 110 pounds only dropping her title match to Reed’s Gracie Richards.
Isabelle Tamondong took third at 100 pounds.
The Steve Deaton Memorial tournament is named in honor of the late Tiger coach, who passed away at age 46 in 2022 after a battle with cancer.
Deaton’s influence is still felt throughout the Tiger wrestling program.
“He was huge to me. He got me into the sport. I was nine years old when I started wrestling for Steve in middle school,” Highfill said. “He kick-started my whole career. … He made me fall in love with the sport.”
Zinn, also a captain on this year’s team, echoed Highfill’s sentiments.
“This one is probably the most special tournament for our whole team. Steve had a lot of great, big, giant affects on some many kids from middle school to high school,” said Zinn. “I didn’t know him until my freshman year, but he still had such a big impact on the whole Douglas High School wrestling team.”
UP NEXT: Douglas will participate in a league dual Tuesday night at Spanish Springs against the Cougars and McQueen. This weekend, the Tigers will travel out east for the Spring Creek Kiwanis Invitational.
