Shine second, Senators are seventh

Shine second at Sierra Nevada Classic

Dave Price

RENO - One more tick of the clock might have been enough time for Nick Shine to have secured a gold medal at the 28th annual Asics Sierra Nevada Classic wrestling tournament on Tuesday night.

It wasn't there and the Carson High School senior had to settle for second-place in the 215-pound weight class after he absorbed an 8-6 defeat at the hands of Jay Carlile from Battle Ground, Wash., in the championship round at the Reno Livestock Events Center.

In spite of the heart-breaking loss, Shine joined teammate Chris Ceccarelli on the medal stand and led the Senators to seventh-place in the team standings of the two-day, 86-team tournament. Carson wound up with 125.5 points, one-half point ahead of Northern 4A rival Churchill County for the No. 7 spot. Burns, Ore., won the team title with 216.5 points, followed by Battle Ground in second.

Galena's Joel Rivadeneyra of Galena also advanced to the championship round at 125 pounds, where he was pinned by Micah Ferguson of Del Oro (Loomis, Calif.), a fourth-place medalist at the California state tournament last season. The loss was only the second of the season for Rivadeneyra.

Carson dropped off after standing second as a team at the start of the day and fourth at the start of the championship round. Still, it was the best finish as a team in recent memory at the high-powered event and left coach Dean Schmanski pleased, yet looking for more.

"It could have been better. With a few breaks here and there, we could have had some kids finish better," Carson's second-year coach said. "But the most important thing, I think our wrestlers learned a lot about themselves here, so no matter where we finished, this has been a great learning experience."

Ceccarelli placed fourth in the 189-pound division after losing to Dustin Pappas of Sonoma Valley (Sonoma, Calif.) in the consolation finals. Earlier in the day, Joe Roman experienced a heart-breaking 4-3 double overtime loss to Patrick Preyer of Sheldon (Elk Grove, Calif.) in the 171-pound quarterfinals. And in the 160-pound division, Loren Wooldridge won a match on Tuesday before being knocked out of the consolation bracket.

Even though Shine saw his season record drop to 24-3 (112-26 for his career at Carson), his loss in the finals came against a blue chip opponent. Carlile is 17-0 this season, 101-15 for his career, and has been a top-three place finisher in Washington's 4A state tournament each of the last two years. He was also a fifth-place finisher at the junior national Greco-Roman national championships in July.

Carlile's Greco-Roman strength showed on three different occasions early in the match when Shine got a leg and appeared to be in position to score a takedown or even a near fall. Carlile escaped unscathed each time on his way to building a 7-3 lead.

"That kid showed a tremendous amount of skill getting away from Nick like he did," Carson assistant coach Guy Rocha said. "Clearly, he has wrestled at the Greco level and I've only seen that (ability) among championship Greco wrestlers. I have not seen that in high school wrestling, ever.

"That says something for Nick, too. Between this tournament and the (Reno) Tournament of Champions, he's seen some of the best high school wrestlers in the nation, and he's shown he is among the best in the nation."

Shine showed endurance in the third round, however. He scored one point on an escape and then two more points on an escape to cut the deficit to 7-6 with 1:12 remaining. Shine gave up an intentional escape with 15 seconds to go, hoping to get a takedown that would have sent the match to overtime. The 6-foot-3 Senator nearly got it as he reached down, caught a leg and had Carlile going down to the mat as time expired.

Schmanski held up two fingers - signifying two points for a takedown - as the two mat officials conferred afterward. In the end, the points were not allowed and Carlile's hand was raised in victory.

"Nick gave him a heck of a go," Schmanski said with a shrug. "He caught up there at the end. It just wasn't enough."

Shine advanced to the championship round with a 15-7 win over Lonny Garbrick of Woodcreek (Roseville, Calif.) in the semifinals. Ceccarelli also reached the semifinals of the 189-pound weight class and dropped a 7-3 decision to Reno's Jake Killeen, a Northern 4A Regional champion last season.

Ceccarelli's highlight came in the consolation bracket semifinals when he pinned Bo Reynolds of Villa Park, Calif., in the opening moments of the second period. The win was significant because Reynolds was seeded No. 1 in the 189-pound division.