Wrestling: Douglas falls to Carson

Carson High's wrestling team kept up its two dual-meet win streaks alive Wednesday night on Senior Night at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

Thanks to five forfeits and wins from Nick Schlager, Nicolas Garcia, Jordan Luhrs, Luke Carter and Ricky Ugarte the Senators topped Douglas 48-17 to run its record to 6-0 in Sierra League dual meets. It was Carson's 23rd straight dual-meet win.

"The kids do get up for Douglas," Carson coach Tim McCarthy said. "Unfortunately they were missing some weights."

Indeed. The forfeits put Douglas into a 30-5 hole after seven matches, and that's not an easy deficit to come back from.

"It's a hard sport to come back from a 30-0 deficit," said Douglas coach Justin Shine, who is a Carson High graduate. "There were five spots we gave up points."

Of Douglas' four wins on the night, three came on the mats. Patrick Miller (215), Dillon Spates (125) and Austin Martin (130) all posted impressive victories.

Miller's pin of Ryan Hoskins cut Carson's early lead to 9-5. The Tigers had a team point taken away because of improper bench behavior. It was the fastest of the night and marked only his second match at 215 pounds this season.

It was 2-all and then Miller got a takedown for a 4-2 lead. The pin came in the latter stages of the first period.

"That's the first time he (Miller) has been able to get down to 215," Shine said. "He's been at 218 or 219 most of the year. He's so much stronger (and quicker) at 215. That is probably the match we could hang our hat on tonight."

After that it was almost all Carson. The Senators won eight of the remaining 11 matches.

Three forfeit wins followed Miller's pin, as the Senators led 27-5. That set the stage for one of Carson's big wins as Ugarte knocked off Wesley Peterson 2-1 at 119 pounds for a 30-5 lead. Peterson was second in the region at 125 pounds last year.

After a scoreless first period, Ugarte worked a takedown for a 2-0 lead. The score stayed the same for the remainder of the period. Peterson worked an escape to narrow the deficit to 2-1, but was unable to get a takedown that would have put him ahead though he came close a couple of times late in the match.

"I wrestled him in the off-season and won 8-4," Ugarte said. "His stance was a lot better. A lot of my shots didn't finish. He's a tough kid. This was a pretty big win."

"The off-season is a little different," McCarthy said. "Ricky beat a quality opponent. Ricky needs to make sure he still has the same fire that he had tonight in two weeks at regionals."

Douglas' Dillon Spates (125) and Austin Martin (130) posted victories to make it 30-12. Spates pounded Austin Brown 14-5. Brown wrestled gamely and saved his team two points by staying off his back. Martin cruised to a 7-0 lead before giving up a second-period reversal to Ty Welch.

The Tigers moved Michael Sepulveda up a weight to take on Nick Schlager at 135, in a matchup of two of the Northern 4A's best wrestlers.

"I was nervous about that because I knew it would be a tough match," Schlager said. "We wrestled earlier this year at the Reed Roundup and I beat him, but it was close; I beat him by three points or something like that. I knew I had to be prepared if I wanted to win."

Schlager, who has lost only three matches all season, struck early with a takedown and near fall for a 5-0 lead against Sepulveda, who was an Outstanding Wrestler award recipient at Alhambra's Lawrence Miller Memorial in the Bay Area earlier this month. Schlager ended the match by fall with 31.9 seconds remaining in the second. Schlager was the 135-pound champion and an Outstanding Wrestler award recipient at the Sierra Nevada Classic.

Jordan Luhrs followed with a 9-2 win over Daniel Lundergreen at 140 pounds, and earned some kudos from his coach in the process.

Garcia then scored an 8-4 decision against Cody Spates in a battle between two of the top 145-pounders in the region.

Spates took a 4-1 lead midway through the second period, thanks to a takedown and near fall, only to see Garcia come back and take a 5-4 lead on a buzzer-beating takedown. Garcia gained some breathing room by scoring three more points on a near fall in the final period.

"I felt he was going to try and throw me, and I was just waiting for it, so I could counter," Garcia said. "It ended up working pretty well. That put me ahead, and I knew I could ride him. I had a feeling they would move him up a weight to face me and get some points."

The final two matches were forfeited, one by each school.

- Dave Price contributed to this report