Workman, McCormick bookend team state championship

Only three months had passed since they were part of history with the football team.

After helping the Greenwave win their first state title in nearly 40 years, senior Trae Workman and freshman Sean McCormick made history again but with the wrestling club. Workman won his second individual state wrestling title, and McCormick claimed his first in as many chances, propelling Fallon to its first-ever state team title on Saturday in the Division I-A tournament in Primm.

“We had a harder work ethic and the kids were more prepared. We pushed hard,” said Workman, a 160-pound grappler.

Fallon not only won its first championship but also did it in convincing fashion. After the semifinal round, the Greenwave were up by almost 50 points and had seven of their 10 wrestlers in the championship round.

Workman, like the rest of the team, was surprised.

“I didn’t want to jinx ourselves, but I was really surprised,” Workman said.

Workman and fellow senior Sam Goings were considered as the leaders of this year’s group. Suffice to say, they both stepped up with a modified coaching staff, and the dedication trickled down to all the weight classes and age groups.

Workman led by example for the final time as he jumped on Clark’s Stefan McLin quickly and caught him on his back for the pin 48 seconds into the bout.

McCormick, who like Goings and Workman, had not lost a match since December in the Sierra Nevada Classic. Since then, they dominated wrestlers from Nevada and its neighboring states.

For McCormick, the 138-pounder was stunned by the end of the night that he won a title but more importantly, the team ended many years of waiting with its own championship.

“I still can’t get over the feeling. It was amazing having everyone here and able to share it with everyone,” he said. “We all kind of knew that we had it all sealed (before the championship round). We wrestled for ourselves and we all wrestled out there. We just wrestled with all we had.”

McCormick faced an unfamiliar opponent in Boulder City’s Tyler Rushworth, but the freshman grappler ended the match abruptly. Barely a minute into the bout, it was all over as McCormick pinned Rushworth.

While Workman will graduate in a few months, it will be up to McCormick and the rest of the returning classmen to help defend the school’s first state title. But until then, the team will be holding onto this moment.

“It just feels so great having to share with everyone and it’s the first one in school history,” McCormick added. “I appreciate it so much. All the hard work paid off. I’m so speechless how everything went down and we got the job done.”