Montezuma-Cortez High School will send three to Denver; Dove Creek, three; Dolores, four; and upstart Mancos, one.<\/p>\n
Panthers shine at regionals<\/p>\n
Competing at the 4A Region 4 Tournament in Montrose, the Montezuma-Cortez High School wrestling team put together an impressive weekend, qualifying three wrestlers for the Colorado state tournament.<\/p>\n
Seager Oliver. Pacing the Panthers as he has throughout the season, 170-pound junior Seager Oliver (37-2) secured his weight division\u2019s championship in impressive fashion.<\/p>\n
After receiving a first-round bye, Oliver pinned his second-round opponent and won by technical fall in the third round, setting the stage for a third-round matchup with Discovery Canyon\u2019s Adrian Mack.<\/p>\n
One of Colorado\u2019s most impressive 170-pound wresters, Mack entered the regional championship with a 26-1 record on the season.<\/p>\n
In no way intimated by Mack however, Oliver eventually dispatched of his tough opponent, pinning him in the third period.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeager just has that focus and that \u2018stop me\u2019 kind of attitude,\u201d said Panthers\u2019 head coach Shad Bellmire.<\/p>\n
Oliver and will enter the state tournament as the 170-pound division\u2019s top-ranked wrestler, where he will open on Feb. 2 against Woodland Park\u2019s Josh Smith (29-9).<\/p>\n
Justice Ramos. Also wrestling well for the Panthers, 145-pound junior Justice Ramos (29-12) placed fourth at the Region 4 Tournament, qualifying for the state tournament.<\/p>\n
After kicking off the tournament with a 14-12 victory over Palisade\u2019s Trevor Garcia, Ramos recorded a pin victory over his second-round opponent.<\/p>\n
Running into problems in the semifinals, Ramos dropped a 14-5 decision to Discovery Canyon\u2019s Tyler Oberg before fighting his way to a fourth-place finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice didn\u2019t ever give up, and he gave it 110%,\u201d said Bellmire.<\/p>\n
Ramos qualified for the state tournament, where he will open against Broomfield\u2019s Randal Baker (18-16) on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n
Levi Gross. Rounding out the Panthers\u2019 state qualifiers, 132-pound junior Levi Gross (29-14) placed fourth in Region 4.<\/p>\n
After opening with pins in the first and second rounds, Gross dropped a 6-0 decision to Palisade\u2019s Dalton Hannigan, but battled back to finish fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cLevi stepped up and wrestled real tough,\u201d said Bellmire.<\/p>\n
Next up will be a Feb. 20 state matchup against Conifer High School\u2019s Bronson Spies (36-2).<\/p>\n
Bulldogs qualify three for state<\/p>\n
Competing at the 2A Region 1 tournament in Grand Junction, the Dove Creek High School team enjoyed mixed results, qualifying three wrestlers for the state tournament and finishing sixth overall as team.<\/p>\n
Nick Jones. Leading the way for the Bulldogs, 138-pound senior Nick Jones (32-12) advanced to the finals before dropping a hard-fought 5-3 decision to Meeker\u2019s J.C. Henderson.<\/p>\n
Even so, Jones qualified for state, where he will open against Fowler\u2019s Rhett Hinkle (26-14) on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
Chance Randolph. Also impressive for the Bulldogs was 132-pound junior Chance Randolph (37-7), who, after pinning his first two opponents, dropped a 6-2 decision to Paonia\u2019s Bo Pipher in the championship match.<\/p>\n
Randolph will kick things off against Del Norte\u2019s Tyler Martinez.<\/p>\n
Case Baughman. Rounding out the Bulldogs qualifiers was 126-pound sophomore Case Baughman (35-7), who finished third at regionals.<\/p>\n
After opening with a decision win over Socoro\u2019s Colton Martindale, he dropped a 9-8 decision to Ignacio\u2019s Ethan Appenzeller in the semis. Baughman rebounded to win two consecutive matches and will open the state tournament against Rye\u2019s Wesley Camper (20-12).<\/p>\n
Bears outstanding at regionals<\/p>\n
Staking their claim to the title of top 1A\/2A team in the area, the Dolores Bears put on a show at the Region 1 tournament, qualifying four of six in route to a fifth-place team finish.<\/p>\n
Ethen Upton. Leading the way for the Bears was 182-pound senior Ethen Upton (18-3), who placed first overall in the region.<\/p>\n
Especially impressive was Upton\u2019s performance in the finals where he pinned Ignacio\u2019s Christian Knoll.<\/p>\n
Upton will open the state tournament against Cheyenne Wells\u2019 Jeremiah Cozart (11-17) on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n
Deano Valdez. Also performing well for the Bears, 145-pound senior Deano Valdez (29-7) finished second at the Region 1 tournament, thereby punching his ticket to state.<\/p>\n
After dominating through the tournament\u2019s first two rounds, Valdez dropped a 6-5 decision to Rangley\u2019s Lucas Heinle in the championship match.<\/p>\n
Even so, Valdez will enter the tournament in good shape against John Mall\u2019s Adam Serrano-Bobian (15-18) on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n
Richard Martinez. Turning in an impressive performance in his first regional, 113-pound freshman Richard Martinez (29-11) finished third overall.<\/p>\n
Winner of three matches at the tournament, Martinez\u2019s lone loss came to Meeker\u2019s Tristin Pelloni in the tournament semifinals.<\/p>\n
Martinez will begin the state tournament on Feb. 20 with a matchup against Fowler\u2019s Gino DeVore (19-16).<\/p>\n
Tristan Medina. Also wrestling well in his first regional tournament was Bears\u2019 106-pound freshman Tristan Medina (19-14), who finished fourth overall.<\/p>\n
After dropping his semi-finals match to Ignacio\u2019s Stocker Robbins, Medina battled back to beat Dove Creek\u2019s Collin Hobbs 11-8 and finished fourth.<\/p>\n
Medina begins the tournament against Akron\u2019s Tanner Watson on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n
Bluejays send one to state<\/p>\n
For a young Mancos program, the Region 1 tournament was full of excitement as the team qualified a wrestler for state.<\/p>\n
Rudy Archuleta. Competing in his first high school wrestling season, Bluejays 113-pound sophomore Rudy Archuleta (14-15) finished fourth overall, thus punching a ticket to the state tournament.<\/p>\n
After opening with a loss, he rebounded to win three consecutive matches over tough opponents.<\/p>\n
Archuleta will open the state tournament on Feb. 20 against John Mall\u2019s Marshal Ross (26-9).<\/p>\n
Check the following locations for live coverage of the Colorado State Wrestling Tournament:
\n www.cortezjournal.com
\n www.facebook.com\/CortezJournal
\n Twitter @imac_34
\n *Coverage will include live updates and photographs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Montezuma-Cortez High School will send three to Denver; Dove Creek, three; Dolores, four; and upstart Mancos, one. Panthers shine at regionals Competing at the 4A Region 4 Tournament in Montrose, the Montezuma-Cortez High School wrestling team put together an impressive weekend, qualifying three wrestlers for the Colorado state tournament. Seager Oliver. Pacing the Panthers as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-121691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=121691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}