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Truckee High wrestling team limps into divisional duals

Matt Brown, Sierra Sun

As the Wolverines travel to Yerington today to begin divisional duals at Rite of Passage High School, they have a lot to prove in high school wrestling’s most pivotal weeks that lead up to the state tournament. The divisional tournament lasts through Saturday.

The divisional duals are important because they determine seedings for Northern 3A zones, the precursor to the state tournament on Feb. 13-14.

Last weekend, Truckee traveled to Fernley for a tournament, and the highest placing for a Truckee wrestler was fourth, courtesy of freshman Tim Curtis.



At Fernley, Curtis was granted a bye in the first round. In his second match, he lost to Brandon Soukup of Yerington, 9-1, and he lost his final match of the tournament to Soukup, 3-0, placing fourth. Curtis, who wrestled in the 135-pound weight class, managed to sandwich two victories between the losses to Soukup.

Buck Claesson had another rough outing after starting the season 18-0. Since then, Claesson is 7-6. Claesson’s first match in Fernley was against Arturo Fraguso of Incline, who is becoming Claesson’s biggest nemesis. Claesson lost for the second straight time to Fraguso, 10-9. Claesson had beaten Fraguso the first three meetings, but Fraguso has taken the last two.



Claesson won his next two matches by pinning his opponents. In his fourth match, Claesson lost to John Abel of Rite of Passage, 9-5. Claesson beat Abel in last year’s state champion match. Claesson won his last match on Saturday to place fifth in the Fernley tournament.

Marcus Waters lost his first match against Justin Grant of Lowry, 5-0. After that first match, Waters turned it around, going 3-1 in the remainder of the tournament.

“Even though he was ill,” said assistant coach Ron Curtis, “that first match kind of woke him up, and he got really aggressive.”

Waters, who recently dropped down a weight class from 152 to 145, finished fifth in the tournament.

Shane Wright saw the most action, wrestling in six matches, going 3-3, good for sixth in the tournament. Wright lost a close match to Tim Torres of Dayton, 9-8. But Wright realizes the time is now to step it up.

“This next three weeks are the most important,” said Wright, who has wrestled through asthma attacks, black eyes and recently, a broken nose.

Chris Hobart, wrestling in the 215-pound weight class, placed sixth for his first placing of the year.


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