Tiger grapplers fare well at districts

Nevada freshman Tanner Charles (bottom) attempts to escape from his opponent's grasp in the first place match of the District Championship tournament. --Photos by Eric Wade/Daily Mail

The Nevada Tigers wrestling team had a strong showing on the final day of the District Championship tournament Saturday.

Only two of this year's competitors were able to qualify for the State Championship, but with the small amount of relative experience that Nevada has this year, that is a strong showing overall. Head wrestling coach Devin White, though happy with the showings of his two state qualifiers, showed some mild disappointment with the overall showing of his team.

"I was hoping we'd got a couple more," he said. "Overall, I think it was a pretty good weekend."

By the time the second day of the tournament began, all of Nevada's wrestlers except one were still in contention for state qualification and two were still competing for first place. Those two wrestlers, Tanner Charles and Todd Brier, ultimately became the only two state qualifiers for Nevada this year.

One other Nevada wrestler came within one match of making the State Championship, but fell just short. Dominic Habjan had a tough match in the final round of wrestlebacks and was unable to come out on top, ending his season just one match from a state qualifying spot.

Nevada junior Todd Brier fights to turn his opponent during Saturday's action at the District Championship tournament. --Eric Wade/Daily Mail

"Dom's a good kid," White said. "He wrestled hard, he wrestled tough." Wrestling hard is exactly what Habjan did, but it simply proved to be his final opponent's day.

Brier had a tough match in his final bout before the championship rounds as well, picking up a loss that dropped him into the third place match instead of contending for the championship. Brier went on to win his final match of the day and took third place and a state qualification. "Todd really wrestled hard," White said.

Nevada's other state qualifier, Tanner Charles, was the only Tiger wrestler to make it into the championship match. Charles had a very tough opponent in the championship and ultimately fell short to a larger and strong Kolton Ross of Pleasant Hill.

"Tanner was more technically sound than the other kid," White said. The other kid was just stronger than he was."

As a team, Nevada finished 10th overall, while Monett took the overall tournament victory.

Both Charles and Brier still have a lot of work to do before the state tournament, but still showed very obvious pleasure with their performances. "I think it's going to be a good year at state," Charles said. "I'm excited about it."

Though just as excited about his first trip to state, Brier continues to keep his focus on the immediate. "I'm just going to go one match at a time and just see how that turns out," he said.