Heavyweights Jake Broyles of Foothill High, bottom, and Isaiah Luzan of Vista High School in California wrestle during the Las Vegas Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Dec. 19.
Published Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 | 3:49 p.m.
Updated Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 | 3:53 p.m.
Bronson Ashjain of Cimarron-Memorial, left, and Jordan Feguis of Deer Valley High School in Arizona wrestle in the 105 lbs. meet during the Las Vegas Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament at the Las Vegas Convention Center Dec. 19.
Heavyweights Jake Broyles of Foothill High, top, and Isaiah Luzan of Vista High School in California wrestle during the Las Vegas Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Dec. 19.
Expanded coverage
Cimarron-Memorial's wrestling program proved to be the deepest in Southern Nevada on Saturday as it took the team championship at the Las Vegas Holiday Classic.
The Spartans entered wrestlers in nine out of 14 weight classes and had eight place in the top seven to garner 268 points.
Las Vegas High took second in the tournament, which featured 69 teams, with 243.5 points, while Brawley of California took third with 236 points.
"This tournament showed that we have a lot of potential," Cimarron coach Tim Jefferies said. "We do have a lot of talent spread across more weight classes this year and I think that will help us in the tournament."
Cimarron's Britain Longmire and Travis DeGroat took tournament championships at 121 pounds and 132 pounds, respectively.
Longmire, who improved to 18-0 on the year, also received "Outstanding Wrestler" honors for the lower weight classes.
After getting four pins and one decision victory, Longmire defeated Cody Hone, of Cedar City, Utah, in a 22-8 major decision for the title.
"This was a great win to start off the season but I still have plenty to work on," Longmire said. "You can never get too complacent after early season win like this."
DeGroat, who is wrestling up two weight classes from last year, had five pins in the tournament including one in the third period of the finals against Jakob Payton of Clark.
Cimarron's Yosnay Malvarez was inches away from a pin in his finals matchup with Foothill's Joel Olivas in the 127 pound finals. However, Olivas was able to escape and come back to win an 11-7 decision.
Cimarron's Aaron Garcia took second in the 191 pound bracket after losing in a 7-5 overtime decision to Cedar City's Kevin King in the finals.
The other Cimarron medalists were Bronson Ashjian, who took seventh at 105, Colbey Garrison, who took third at 137 pounds, and Jason Schuele, who took fourth at 142.
"It helps having more of our wrestlers competing in the later rounds together," DeGroat said. "You feel more comfortable plus you have everyone rooting for you, cheering you on. You build off everyone else's success."
The victory puts the Spartans, a perennial wrestling power, as the program to beat come the state tournament in February
But even with a win in Las Vegas' biggest early season high school tournament, Cimarron is anything but overconfident.
"It's way too early in the season to tell where this puts us in the state tournament," said Jefferies, who looks to improve on last season's third place finish. "Las Vegas has a lot of great wrestlers and the northern schools, it's difficult to say how we match up with them."
Sean Ammerman can be reached at 990-2661 or [email protected].
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