Vaqueros go 7-1 in Divisional Duals, open region tournament Friday
Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
With two wrestlers going undefeated and likely earning No. 1 seeds in their weight classes, the Fernley High School wrestling team went 7-1 in last weekend’s Northern 3A Divisional Duals.
Next up is the Northern 3A Region Tournament, Friday and Saturday at Sparks High School.
Seeding will be done in a coaches’ meeting at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Wrestling begins at 4 p.m. Friday and at 9 a.m. Saturday.
The results of last week’s Divisional Duals will weight heavily in the seeding process, and with the success they had last week, coach Ernie Garcia said most of the Vaqueros will be seeded in the top four of their weight classes. The top four finishers in each weight class will qualify for the State Tournament Feb. 14-15 in Mesquite.
“We’ve got a couple of young guys that will be sitting right outside of the top 4 so they’ll have to beat someone that they didn’t this weekend to qualify for state,” Garcia said.
Among those who will be highly seeded are Jackson Chapin and Setriano Piroddi, who each went 8-0 last week.
“Setriano Piroddi had a great weekend,” Garcia said. “He’s the favorite to win it all.”
Piroddi avenged two losses from earlier in the season, one to Robert Crampton of North Valleys and the other to Hunter Hood of Spring Creek.
Chapin will also be seeded No. 1.
“Nobody has put in more work than that guy,” Garcia said. “He’s determined to win it all.”
Morgan Zolyniak went 7-1, while John Owens and Alec Carr both went 6-1, and each could be seeded No. 2. Other potential top seeds are Brody Garrett, who went 5-2, Brandon Monteiro and Kale Kreller, who each went 6-2 and Kennith Nystrom and Nathan Glass, who both were 5-3.
“We’ve got guys in our lineup that were just trying to find wins whenever they could last year,” Garcia said. “Now those same guys are in the hunt for medals at state.”
As a team, the Vaqueros beat Dayton 84-0, Sparks 78-6, Lowry 43-29, Fallon 67-12, Elko 54-27, North Valleys 51-24 and South Tahoe 57-24, and lost to Spring Creek 58-18.
“I’m confident in where our guys are at right now,” Garcia said. “Those young guys will find a way to push through and get the job done. I’m excited to see what they accomplish these next two weeks.”