Trojans win 5 gold medals at wrestling regionals

The Pahrump Valley Trojans wrestling team walked away from the 3A southern regional tournament this past weekend with a lot of hardware, including five gold medals.

After having won the league title, Pahrump Valley had their eyes set on winning the regional title as well. The Trojans entered the tournament with a representative for all 14 weight divisions.

All 14 wrestlers finished in the top 5 of their weight divisions and 12 of the 14 wrestlers finished in the top 4 of their division.

“These boys have bought in,” Pahrump Valley wrestling head coach Craig Rieger said. “They’ve done a great job. They’ve taken a lot of hard work. I’m grateful and impressed at what they do.”

For finishing inside the top 4 of the division, each wrestler was awarded a medal and they qualified for the state tournament in Boulder City, Nevada on Saturday, Feb 19.

The Trojans had five wrestlers who participated in championship matches. Among those in the championship rounds were undefeated seniors Chris Vega and Colby Tillery.

Vega wrestled for the 126-pound title, while Tillery was in the 145-pound division.

Pahrump went 5 for 5 in their championship matches, winning four of the five matches by a pinfall. The only wrestler that didn’t win by a pin was sophomore Gunner Cortez, who won his 132-pound first-place match via an injury forfeit by his opponent.

Cortez’s opponent suffered a shoulder injury earlier in the tournament and he didn’t want to make the injury worse by participating in the final match and not being able to participate in the state tournament.

The other first-place finishers for the Trojans were sophomore Brennen Benedict in the 138-pound division and junior Tannor Hanks in the 220-pound division.

“It feels good,” Rieger said. “It was a hard-fought day, it was a long day. Those five individual champs did a great job. I think the boys really stepped up today, it was a good day.”

After going perfect in their championship matches, the Trojans won four of their seven third-place matches.

Juniors Kyle Heaney (106-pound division), Nate Schaaf (120-pound division), Abraham Oliveros (170-pound division) and Ty Hanks (285-pound division) all won their third-place matches.

Tyler Heaney (113-pound division), Ronnie Cross (195-pound division) and freshman Ethan Hutchinson (182-pound division) all finished in fourth place for the Trojans.

Only senior Henry Amaya (152-pound division) and junior Jose Mendoza-Lara (160-pound division) failed to finish in the top four of their divisions. Each of these wrestlers finished in fifth place for their divisions.

With all of the top four finishers for the Trojans, Pahrump Valley was able to overcome an early deficit to come back and win the overall points championship. This finish was a great improvement on their sixth-place team finish in the 2020 regional tournament.

This is Pahrump Valley’s first regional tournament overall win since the 2014-15 season.

Even with so much success at the regional tournament, Rieger knows that the team still has things they can build on and improve before the state tournament on Saturday.

“I know what’s coming up,” Rieger said. “I told the boys, ‘This was a goal. We’ve accomplished this, but we have one more week to focus and really get ready for the big one.’”

The first rounds are at 9 a.m.; championship matches at 5:30 p.m.