Wrestling teams from across the state traveled to the Winnemucca Events Center for the Nevada state wrestling tournaments over the weekend where the 2A, 3A and 5A state champions were crowned.
Between the three classes, 55 schools were represented with a total of 391 wrestlers competing for their chance to become a state champion.
The 3A class had 111 wrestlers, representing 19 schools competing in their tournament.
Last year, the Elko Indians were the class 3A state champions. They had two wrestlers win their individual weight class championships and three wrestlers finish as runners-up.
The Indians won the 2022 state championship by the slimmest of margins, finishing with 145 team points. The state runners-up, the Spring Creek Spartans, finished with 142.5 team points.
This season, however, would be a little easier for the Indians as they repeated as the Nevada 3A state champions. This time, they finished with 118.5 points, while the runners-up, the Virgin Valley Bulldogs, finished with 99 team points.
The Pahrump Valley Trojans finished in ninth place this year at the state competition. They had 11 wrestlers competing across the 14 weight classes.
Pahrump came in fresh off their second straight Southern Nevada 3A regional championship, winning by eight points over the Moapa Valley Pirates.
The Trojans had three wrestlers place in the top four spots of their weight classes, including 2023 150-pound state champion Brennen Benedict.
Benedict, a junior this year, finished the season with just one loss on his record, which came against an opponent from 4A Silverado in the Chaparral Invitational back in January.
Benedict won two of his three matches via decision, including the championship match.
In his first match of the tournament, Benedict defeated his opponent, Damon Fetty of Lowry High School, with a pin in the first round.
Just before the pin, Benedict was in a defensive position before successfully getting a reversal against Fetty to get into an offensive position and getting the victory.
During his championship match, Benedict led his opponent, Luc Koch of Wooster High School, 3-0 entering the third period.
Benedict used a near-pinfall to jump out ahead 6-0 and would eventually go on to win the match and become a state champion with a 6-2 decision win.
Senior brothers Tannor and Ty Hanks both finished in fourth place in their respective weight classes.
Tannor went 2-2 in the 215-pound weight class, while Ty finished his day with a 2-2 record in the 285-pound weight class.
Tannor won his first match of the tournament with a pinfall in the second round. He was tied with his opponent 2-2 at the time of the victory.
He would go 1-1 over his next two matches, losing in the second round of the championship bracket and getting a win in his first consolation match to set up a rematch of the regional championship matchup between he and Chaparral senior Frankie Maldonado.
This was the third time in the last two years between the regional and state tournaments that these two wrestlers went head-to-head.
Unfortunately, it seems like Maldonado may have Hanks’ number.
Maldonado has won two of the three matches between the two, including this third-place match at the 2023 state tournament.
Hanks was able to get the initial takedown to get into an offensive position. However, Maldonado would get a reversal, followed by a near-pin to take a 5-2 lead over Hanks.
Maldonado would go on to get a victory with a pinfall in the first round to take the bronze medal and give Hanks a fourth-place finish.
Ty began his 2023 state tournament with a matchup against Isileli Masi of Wooster.
Masi would get a first-round victory via pinfall to send Ty to the consolation bracket. This wouldn’t be the last time these two wrestlers faced each other on Saturday.
Ty would win his next two matches, both via pinfalls. One came in the first round against his opponent from Hug High School, while his second victory came just a few seconds into the second round in his match with Luke Bennett of Elko High School.
Bennett was the northern regional champion in the 285-pound class.
With his win over Bennett, Ty was set up with a rematch against Masi after Masi was sent to the consolation bracket with his second-round loss.
Masi must have seen something he knew he could take advantage of in their rematch. He was able to get the win for third place with an 18-3 decision.
This will put a bow on the great coaching career of head wrestling coach Craig Rieger.
Rieger will be retiring at the end of the 2022-23 school year and will not be coaching the Trojans going forward.
He coached numerous individual state champions, as well as winning multiple team regional championships during his tenure at Pahrump Valley High School.
Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.