Five win titles for Spartans in Sunset tourney

Returning to the top of Nevada wrestling has been a goal of Cimarron-Memorial’s team this season.

After their performance Saturday at the Sunset Region wrestling tournament, the Spartans appear to be heading in the right direction.

With five individual champions, Cimarron racked up 249½ points to pin down the Sunset Region title.

The Spartans had nine wrestlers place in the top three in the region meet to advance to next week’s state meet in Winnemucca.

Bonanza was second with 173 points, followed by Sierra Vista (133½) and Shadow Ridge (112½).

Two-time defending state champion Britain Longmire led the way for Cimarron, winning the 119-pound championship.

Longmire said he was pleased the team had a good showing at the regional so it would have a better chance to capture its first state title since it won four in a row from 2003 to 2006.

“We could have had a few more guys make it, but it’s been good,” Longmire said. “Now we can try to get back to where we were.
“It’s been great, these three years I have been at Cimarron. We are just trying to go out with a bang.”

Cimarron’s other regional champions were Travis DeGroat (130 pounds), Colby Garrison (135), Jason Schuele (140) and Aaron Garcia (189).

Bonanza had four state qualifiers, led by Stuart Montenegro, who took first at 160, and Mike Zellner, who set the pace for the Bengals

by opening the championship round with a victory at 103 pounds.

 “I have noticed with our team, if I start out with a win, it keeps the team going,” said Zellner, who fell behind 4-1 in the championship bout before rallying to edge Sierra Vista’s Jevon Suggs, 6-5. “I just kept battling hard, and I was wearing him out as the match went on. I just kept fighting hard.

“We all wrestled great, and are peaking at the right time.”

Two-time defending state champion Mojave had a pair of first-place finishers in Josh Cabrerra (152) and Daryl Eddings (215), and the Rattlers also had four state qualifiers.

Bishop Gorman also had two regional champions. Johnny Field had a takedown and near-fall with 18 seconds left in the second overtime period to pull out a 10-6 win over Pahrump Valley’s Zach Weldon in the 171-pound title bout.

Steven Hernandez took the title at 145 for the Gaels.

Other regional champions were Cheyenne’s Kenneth Davis (112), Centennial’s Brady Worden (125) and Sierra Vista’s Andrew Ramos (285).