Slapinski, Pritchard place 3rd at Vaquero Classic
Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
Lonnie Slapinski and Willy Pritchard placed third and Setriano Piroddi finished sixth to lead the Fernley High School Wrestling team to a tie for 9th place in the 17th annual Walter Marrietta Vaquero Classic last weekend.
Slapinski won the third-place match in the heavyweight division in quadruple overtime, 2-1 over Seth Cooke of Reed. At 195 pounds, Pritchard won a 5-3 decision over Roman Tomten of Elko, while Piroddi finished sixth at 220 pounds.
Fernley scored 85 team points to tie for 9th place with Chester (Calif.). Reno won the tournament with 263 points, while Lowry was second with 171 and Reed was third with 160.5. There were 30 teams in the tournament.
Along with their three placers, Fernley coach Scott Gillespie said Carter Chapin also had a great tournament.
“I want to give a huge thank you to every community member that made this huge event possible,” Gillespie said. “Without the volunteer help of dozens of people, we would not be able to put on a tournament of this size.”
Last year, Fernley High School renamed its tournament 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.
“Walter was an amazing father and husband who also happened to be a great wrestling official,” Gillespie said. “He is surely missed.”
Last weekend’s meet was the last of the regular season for the Vaqueros, who complete this Friday and Saturday at the Divisional Duals at South Tahoe. The results of the duals will be used to seed wrestlers for the 3A North Region Tournament the following weekend in Truckee.
