Perkins first, Remer third as Senator wrestlers show poise at Sierra Nevada Classic

RENO – Two top three finishes at the Sierra Nevada Classic Saturday left Carson High head coach Nick Redwine feeling much more content than the Senators last tournament in Reno.

Saturday evening, Senator freshman Amber Perkins took home the gold medal in the girls 121-pound weight class while Carson senior David Remer left with a bronze in the 195 weight division.

Perkins wrestled Carson’s final match of the day against a familiar foe in Katie Ward of McQueen.

The Senator freshman jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a quick takedown before a second takedown in the middle period gave her a 4-2 edge.

In the third, Perkins added to her takedown total with one final move to pick up a first place finish by a 6-2 decision.

“It’s really crazy. I got a lot of support from my coaches, my family and my brother,” said Perkins. “It’s always been my dream to finally wrestle in high school.”

The win was Perkins’ first over Ward in her wrestling career as Perkins and Redwine both added that Ward had won the first several meetings between the two.

Winning a varsity tournament and defeating a tough foe left Perkins smiling after Redwine did the honors of presenting his wrestler with her medal on the podium.

“In the past I realized I looked at her and got intimidated,” said Perkins. “I’ve just been putting in the work. … I learned from last time my shots are effective on her.”

“Couldn’t be more proud. … She was wrestling really tough. It’s a great victory and a big tournament to do it (at). I’m so stoked,” Redwine said. “She’s just a freshman and she’s definitely going to be one of our top kids for a while.”

For Remer, a third place finish left the Carson senior with something to be desired, but the 195-pounder still walked out of the Reno Livestock Event Center upbeat.

In his third place match, Remer took on Carsten Rawls of St. Francis for the second time that day after Remer defeated the fellow 195-pounder in the tournament’s quarterfinals.

It was Rawls who gained the upper hand early in the third place match, getting a takedown and three near fall points in the opening two minutes.

Remer responded with a reversal to cut it to 5-2, but Rawls opted for the bottom position to start the second period and took the reversal points right back.

However, a quick mistake by Rawls in the middle of the second period left Remer with an opening and the Carson senior took advantage, flipping Rawls to his back and pinning him on the edge of the circle to secure third place.

“I went in there being aggressive, wanting to wrestle at my pace,” said Remer. “I capitalized on one thing that he did, put him to his back and squeezed with the whole life of me to finish it.”

The bronze medal marked the first time Remer had placed at the Sierra Nevada Classic.

“He’s really good at capitalizing on mistakes,” said Redwine of Remer. “Yesterday, he looked in control the whole time. … He came back and he stayed in good positions. He’s so hard to beat.”

Senators battle through Friday

Carson had a number of competitors on the cusp of making it to Saturday’s portion of the tournament.

Alex Wells was the only other Senator to advance out of Friday and into the weekend, but ran into two stiff opponents to open up his second day.

Wells was pinned by Spanish Springs’ Anthony Sissom in the first period of his quarterfinal match only to be pinned again in the consolation by Brook Byers out of Sprague (Oregon).

“I thought Alex Wells wrestled really well. He got a bad draw with a Nevada state champ in Sissom and then he runs into a buzz saw,” said Redwine. “He’s wrestling better than I’ve ever seen him.”

Max Harris, Ariel Vega and Izayah Pando all received positive praise from Redwine for their results through Friday.

Harris went 3-2 at 138 pounds, Vega went 2-2 at 113 pounds and Pando recorded a 2-2- day at 152 pounds.

Gabriel Madera and Zach Gafford also won two matches for the Senators Friday as well.

“I was just really overall pleased with the effort we had at this tournament in comparison to the Tournament of Champions,” said Redwine.

When all was said and done, Carson finished with 62 team points, earning 35^th as a squad. Rancho Bernardo won the team title with 212 points.