Lincoln County junior Will Culverwell, son of coach Steve Culverwell, won the 145-pound NIAA Division III state wrestling championship Saturday in Winnemucca.
He was the only wrestler from either Lincoln or Pahranagat Valley to win a championship, however Pahranagat Valley’s Salvador Heredia (106) and Mateo Linares (195), and Lincoln’s Zach Rowe (113), Jesse Mathews (138) and Jesse McLean (160) each finished second.
Alamo’s Caleb Hansen (170) and Austin Horrocks (182) both placed fourth.
Battle Mountain won its third straight Division III championship, with 193 points. Yerington was second with 156½, Lincoln was fourth with 88 points and Pahranagat Valley was eighth with 51 points.
Culverwell said in the finals he wrestled Nick Myers from Spring Mountain, the same man he beat to win the Southern Regional title the week before in Panaca. Culverwell pinned Myers in 1:22 of the first period. “It was pretty quick match. We tied up, he got into a bad position, I threw him and he couldn’t get off his back, and that was it.”
Lincoln coach Steve Culverwell said the Lynx as a team did well at state. “We took 10 wrestlers and five of them placed, which is about where I thought we were at. I felt reasonably good about it.”
Culverwell said he was surprised Zach Rowe lost in the 113-pound finals. He was the 106-pound state runner-up in 2014. “But,” he said, “being a sophomore, he has two more years to win a title or two.”
He thanked assistant coach James Bourne, a former USA National Team member, for all his technical expertise, and also thanked former coaches Mason Stackhouse and Rich Ottley for their help.
Pahranagat coach Brad Loveday said it was nice to have two of his three seniors, Hansen and Horrocks, place at state. “Just to win a match when you get to the state tournament is a big deal for these kids. Everybody there is good. All the guys that aren’t good, aren’t there anymore.”
Dominique Sloan served as an assistant coach for PVHS.
