Carson wrestlers win fifth straight league title

MINDEN - When it was all said and done Wednesday night, there was little fanfare.

The Carson wrestling team had just defeated the rival Douglas Tigers 58-19, clinching its fifth straight Sierra League title outright and extending its league dual match win streak to 25.

There was no elaborate celebration attached. The Senators were already looking toward their next step, a non-league dual against High Desert champ Spanish Springs tonight.

"We're excited to win the league again, it feels great," Carson coach Tim McCarthy said. "We've been able to field good teams for a number of years now, but we have Spanish Springs coming in for our Senior Night.

"We beat them for the regional title last year and they are a super strong team this year. It's a situation where we don't want to celebrate too much because we've got the toughest team in the North coming in. We were hoping for a win tonight and things turned out the way we had hoped. But the kids need to stay hungry for Spanish Springs. It's a high level of competition."

Against Douglas, Carson won eight of the 11 contested matches on the evening, with seven of the eight wins coming via pin. The eighth was by major decision.

Caden Lehman (106 pounds), Cole McCarthy (132), Nicholas Lani (138), Brady O'Keefe (145), Colby Brown (160), Jordan Luhrs (170) and Brady Rivera (182) all recorded pins for Carson.

Dominic Kinder took a 13-1 major decision at 126 pounds.

"We were especially happy for Caden Lehman," McCarthy said. "He's been working hard all year, getting better. It was good for him to get a win tonight."

Perhaps the most hotly contested matches of the evening proved to also be the lowest scoring.

In the 152-pound bout, Carson's Skylar Schilling made his varsity debut while filling in for Nolan Shine (knee injury).

Schilling was pitted against Douglas senior Branden James and the two battled to a scoreless draw through the first period. They became locked on equal footing with 20 seconds left in the first, each taking his turn nearly putting together a scoring maneuver.

Schilling took the down position for the second and James managed to hold him, preventing an escape, for the entire two minutes, leaving the scoreboard empty through two periods.

In the third, James started down and was kept there by Schilling for the first 30 seconds. As James attempted to break out of the hold, Schilling nearly took James to his back for a near fall. James was able to pull out of the hold, though, and he quickly covered over Schilling for the 2-point reversal.

The two remained deadlocked over the final 70 seconds of the bout with James prevailing as the 2-0 victor.

"It was a good matchup," McCarthy said. "Branden James was in our Bulldogs club growing up and he's an experienced wrestler. Skyler did a heck of a job. It's a loss, but it was one of our better performances."

James was one of Douglas' three victors in contested bouts on the evening.

Ian Kendrick wrestled in the 220-pound bout to lead the match off for Douglas and posted a dominating 13-5 major decision.

Sophomore Zach Singer closed out the night with a pin in 90 seconds in the 195-pound match.

Singer was pitted against Carson's Javier Torres and the duo flurried back and forth over the first minute. Torres scored the first takedown 16 seconds in, which Singer quickly reversed and parlayed into a near fall. Torres managed to escape, setting the score at 4-3.

With 43 seconds remaining in the first period, Singer recorded his first takedown of the match and pushed that move into a pin 13 seconds later.