LV wrestling brings home state title

For Las Vegas High School, this one was a long time coming.

Deprived of a state championship since 1993's boys track victory, the Wildcats clawed their way back into the winner's circle on Saturday, capturing the 4A state wrestling title in Elko.

No easy feat, Las Vegas' win came by 12 points, 144-132, at the expense of two-time defending champion Cimarron-Memorial in front of an estimated crowd of 2,000.

"I'm so happy for our school, our program and our kids in particular," Las Vegas coach Joe LaRocco said. "It's the goal of so many coaches, and we were able to accomplish it."

The Wildcats, who led the Spartans by just 1.5 points going into Saturday's competition, dominated the critical semifinal round to distance themselves from Cimarron. Both teams had five wrestlers trying for the finals. Las Vegas' quintet went 4-1, while Cimarron's managed just one victory.

"The semifinals were the big round for us," LaRocco said. "After that round, we were tough to beat."

Junior Greg Gifford led the charge for the 'Cats, capturing the 171-pound title to cap his perfect 41-0 record. His pin against Douglas' Nathan Bennett in the finals was a fitting finish for a season in which Gifford was never so much as taken down by an opponent.

"He walked through it, never had a problem," LaRocco said. "He's just relentless."

Three Wildcats wound up second in their weight classes -- Rodrigo Sison (135), Chris Gifford (160) and Jacob Hales (215) -- with David Hales (189) and Evan Ellsworth (152) placing third and fourth, respectively.

"There was a lot of pressure, and I thought the kids handled it well," said LaRocco, whose team captured five tournaments during the regular season, along with the Sunset Region and 4A State meets.

The Spartans also wound up with one individual champion -- 152-pound senior Rayes Gonzales, who returned to the victory stand after finishing second last year. Andre Rhodes (160), Rodrick Atwood (215) and Brandon Garcia (275) placed third, Josh Fiztgerald (145) took fourth and Mike Parks (125) and Joe Tussing (125) both finished fifth for Cimarron.

Rancho, which wound up fourth in the team standings behind Elko, took home three individual titles, with Jered Medina (119), Bill Rosado (125) and Josh Medina (145) all winning their second career championships.

Southern Nevada's other two individual champions were Chaparral's Curtis Johnson (130), who won the state team title with Cimarron last season, and Silverado's V.R. Bohman (275).

On the boys side, defending 4A champion Bishop Gorman (27-2) goes in as the favorite, and will open against Desert Pines (18-6) Wednesday at 8:10 p.m. The winner will face either Green Valley (22-10) or Galena (23-7), who will play for the second time this season at 6:35 p.m. In an earlier meeting, the Gators downed the Grizzlies 58-56 in double-overtime.

The other side of the boys bracket will feature a first-round matchup between Sunset runner-up Western (23-5) and McQueen (20-8) at 10:35 a.m., followed by a clash between surprise Sunrise champion Las Vegas (21-11) and Reno (24-6) at 3:20 p.m.

In girls action, defending 4A champion Galena (23-5) opens against Las Vegas (18-7) at 5 p.m., with the winner advancing to play the victor of the 12:10 p.m. matchup between Centennial (28-3) and Silverado (24-6). The Bulldogs earned the Sunset's top seed by knocking off Bishop Gorman, previously unbeaten against in-state foes, 52-44 Saturday.

On the other half of the girls draw, Gorman will square off with McQueen in a battle of teams with identical 25-3 records at 9 a.m. And at 1:45 p.m., Sunrise champion Green Valley (17-10) will try to knock off Reno (23-4), last year's 4A runner-up.

Also headed to Reno for this week's festivities are The Meadows' boys and girls teams, who will compete in Nevada's four-team 2A tournaments.

Nicole Moffatt put the Gaels in front 20 minutes into the game, Natalia Romo helped pad the lead with an insurance goal and keeper Danielle Ghaffari made it stand up for Gorman (17-4-3).

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