Fernley wrestling hosts Divisional Duals

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

After placing third in their host tournament, the Walter Marrietta Vaquero Classic last weekend, the Fernley High School wrestling team is hosting the Northern 3A Divisional Duals this week.

Wrestling begins Friday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m.

Each team in the Northern 3A will wrestler duals against each other team. Each wrestlers individual results during the duals will be used to seed wrestlers for nest week’s Northern 3A Region Tournament in Spring Creek.

Led by Lonnie Slapinski, who won the championship in the heavyweight division, and Corbin Henderson, who placed second at 106 pounds, the Vaqueros had seven individual placers and came in third as a team at the Marrietta Classic.

The tournament is named after Walter Marrietta, a former wrestling official who was a member of the Northern Nevada Wrestling Officials Association for 22 years and died Dec. 31, 2014.

“Having a home tournament is a really awesome experience for the kids,” coach Scott Gillespie said.

Other placers for Fernley were Jared Caulk in third place at 126 pounds, Carter Chapin in fifth place at 152 pounds, Shawn Gleason in fifth place at 170 pounds, Gabe Richards in sixth place at 182 pounds and Setriano Piroddi in second place at 220 pounds.

“We wrestled well,” Gillespie said. “We had a few guys lose very close matches to drop down in the lower parts of the bracket. As usual Corbin Henderson and Lonnie Slapinski stood out as top guys in their respective weight classes.”

In addition to the tournament, the team held its annual youth tournament, “Fury in Fernley”, which it hosts the day after its high school tournament each year.

“These kids are the future of our program,” Gillespie said. “We have a solid group of young kids coming up. It is exciting to see them in action. Kids like Brodie and Brady Garrett, Benny Blyveis, Riley McCullar, Clay Degloyer and many others are fun to watch. It is a great opportunity for our kids to give back to the community.”

Gillespie said the wrestling team wants to thank all of the coaches and parents of the Fernley Youth Wrestling club.

“They put in countless hours to help the young people of our community and that is to be commended,” Gillespie said.