By Brandon Eastman Posted December 1, 2010
The Lowry wrestling team will look to keep their winning streak alive this year as they come into the season as the two-time defending state champions and will be pursuing a three-peat.
“Every year our expectations are to win it all,” said head coach John Brooks, who is assisted by Tim Grady and Gus Duncan.
Lowry returns seven seniors this year with Mario Bautista Jr., Alfonso Bernal, Bobby Marley, Cesar Moreno, Dylan Ongert, Mitch Pollock, and Ivan Ramirez.
“We have five kids that are state champions on our team right now with Jace Billingsley, Michael Billingsley, Ryan Nelson, Gus Duncan, and Mitch Pollock,” said Brooks.
Lowry, however, will be without the services of Pollock this year due to a shoulder injury he suffered during football season.
Lowry lost ten seniors due to graduation last year which will give this team a new look this year as some new kids will attempt to step into their places to try to bring Lowry their 13th State Wrestling Championship.
There are twenty-five freshmen and sophomores on the team along with the eight juniors.
“We’re young and it’s going to come down to whether those freshmen can fill the shoes or not,” said Brooks.
Coach Brooks hopes his team doesn’t become complacent and thinks a state championship will just fall into their laps and wants them to focus on each upcoming match.
“That’s gonna be the challenge this year, a couple years ago we snuck up on some people and they didn’t even know who we were because we hadn’t had a lot of success the previous couple of years, and last year we just dominated,” said Brooks.
Besides the individual state champions, Lowry also had several other wrestlers place during the state tournament last year. Coach Brooks hopes the addition of Elko, Fallon, and South Tahoe to the league will make their schedule tougher and they will eventually get back to the state tournament.
“Expectations are that we outwork anybody and hopefully that leads to our goal to win it all,” said Brooks.
The bar has been set high as Lowry will have a target on their backs, but according to coach Brooks, Lowry isn’t the team to beat this year, but they will be right up there in the standings with both the Spring Creek Spartans and the Fallon Greenwave.
