Coach Craig Rieger and staff took 13 Pahrump Valley High School wrestlers to compete in the 2018 Nevada Interscholastic Athletics Association Class 3A Southern Regional Wrestling Championships at Western High School in Las Vegas.
Twelve of those wrestlers who competed in the Feb. 2-3 regional event will be moving on to this weekend’s 2018 NIAA State Championship Tournament to be contested at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Junior Dylan Grossell (138 pounds), and freshman phenom Braylan Durazo (160 pounds), led the way, claiming individual championships in their respective weight classes. Both underclassmen will be the No. 1 seeds going into the weekend state tournament for the Trojans.
After the Feb. 2 preliminary rounds, the Trojans were sitting in the middle of the pack (fifth place overall) out of the 11 Southern Nevada high schools competing in the championships.
Saturday was an entirely different story, as the Trojans jumped up to as high as second place in the team score, before ultimately finishing third, finishing well ahead of the fourth-place Mojave team.
The final overall team scores were as follows: Boulder City (273), Virgin Valley (217), Pahrump Valley (207), Mojave (160), Cheyenne (134), Chaparral (75), Moapa Valley (63), Desert Pines (56.5), Western (50), Sunrise Mountain (24) and Del Sol (9).
Pahrump Valley had six individuals wrestling for the regional championships; Grossell (138 pounds), junior, first; Dylan Wright (145 pounds), freshman, second; Tristan Maughan (152 pounds), junior, second; Durazo (160 pounds), freshman, first; Cole Walker (182 pounds), senior, second; Morgan White (220 pounds), senior, second.
Additionally, the Trojans had four individuals wrestling in the consolation finals (third/fourth place match): junior Alec Torres (126 pounds), fourth; junior Isaac Cruz (132 pounds), fourth; junior Angel Pinzon (170 pounds), fourth; and sophomore Armani McGhee (heavyweight), fourth.
Rounding out the state qualifiers for the Trojans were sophomore Donnie Miller (120 pounds) fifth, and senior Jeremy Albertson (195 pounds), fifth.
Cruz, Grossell, Walker and Albertson participated in the 2017 NIAA State Championships for the Trojans, where the team finished in 10th place overall. This year’s contingent of state representatives is double last year’s with hopes of placing much higher in the final team score.
The 2018 NIAA State Championships will be contested, starting 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 9 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
All NIAA wrestling classes (1A-4A) will compete in the one-day event, signifying the best eight individuals in each of 14 weight classes, as well as the class team championship being awarded.
Each weight class will have eight wrestlers (five from Southern Nevada and three from Northern Nevada).For more information on Friday’s event, log on to www.niaa.com