3 Wrestlers Place at Sparks Tourney

Three Eureka wrestlers did very well at the Sparks tournament in Reno Jan. 3-4.

Coach Jeremy Auch said the team had traveled to both Winnemucca and Sparks the past couple of weekends and, “did OK, learned a lot and saw a lot of things we need to work on as individuals and as a team.”

At Winnemucca, Chris Drayton (160) was 1-1, but got hurt in his last match and had to withdraw.

At the Sparks tournament, Drayton took second place. He had a bye his first match, then scored a 14-2 major decision over Nikita Pavlov of Pershing County, and a pin in the semifinals of Justin Barnes of Yerington. In the finals, he was matched with Tyler Green of Sparks and lost by fall in the first period.

Preston Hubbard (170) and (Quade) James Filippini (138) both took third place at Sparks.

Hubbard won his first two matches over Joshua Buen of Dayton and Manuel Garcia of Douglas. In the semifinals, he lost to Jackson Chapin of Fernley, the eventual weight class winner. In the consolation he won over Dayton Conseur of Dayton and Johnathan Paige of Sparks.

Filippini won his first three matches. Beating Paris Acosta of North Valley, Bronson Lyman of Fernley and Derek Robbins of South Tahoe. But he lost the semifinal match to Jonah Erickson of Yerington.

Moving to the consolation semifinals, he took a 5-0 decision over Dimitri Zveniatckovs of Pershing County, then for third place won by fall over Ty Milligan of Spanish Springs.

Auch said, “We are improving every weekend and I can see the progression in the kids win or lose. There is always stuff we can work on and correct. Getting the kids to understand that you have to have a lot of heart, desire, motivation and mental and physical toughness to wrestle. I have told them if you can get all that to come together at once, you’ll be untouchable, and we are slowly getting there.”

Auch reported that at the Winnemucca matches, Kaden Briones (195) was 0-2. “Needs to be doing moves and being more technical, rather than relying on physical strength.

Filippini was 4-2 and took fifth place. Sam Bauman was 0-2 at Winnemucca and 1-2 at Sparks. Orrin Knudsen was 0-2 at both Winnemucca and Sparks. Auch said both wrestlers “need to be more aggressive and not be so stiff and timid.”

This weekend, Friday and Saturday, the Vandals are at the Douglas Invitational in Minden.