{"id":13497,"date":"2026-02-15T05:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T12:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-leads-area-wrestling-contingent-with-five-state-qualifiers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:38:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:38","slug":"montezuma-cortez-leads-area-wrestling-contingent-with-five-state-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-leads-area-wrestling-contingent-with-five-state-qualifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez leads area wrestling contingent with five state qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"M-CHS
M-CHS wrestler Bodie Stiegelmeyer competes in the Four Corners Throwdown at M-CHS on Saturday afternoon. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DELTA \u2013 The Panthers could have asked for an easier path to the state championships, but the regional draw for Montezuma-Cortez High School meant head coach Ryan Daves\u2019 crew would know exactly where they stood against the state\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

Three teams inside the top eight in the Class 3A state rankings converged in Delta, making a top-four finish in any weight class difficult. Even so, the Panthers advanced three state qualifiers from the Class 3A Region 3 tournament on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Up the road in Hotchkiss, the Panthers girls team took on the Class 4A Region 3 field and earned two top-four finishes to send a second straight contingent to Denver in the program\u2019s sophomore season.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the Class 2A Region 1 meet in Cedaredge, Dolores, Dove Creek and Mancos wrestlers sought to extend their seasons to CHSAA\u2019s state championships, set for Feb. 19\u201321 at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

Dolores turned one of its largest rosters in recent years into four state qualifiers and finished eighth overall, the best team finish among area schools. Dove Creek will send two first-time qualifiers, while Mancos added one.<\/p>\n

M-CHS closed the regular season with momentum following midseason challenges, highlighted by strong showings in Ignacio and at the school\u2019s Four Corners Throwdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a mental sport \u2013 the kids know how to wrestle, sometimes they just need to think that they know how to wrestle,\u201d Daves said. \u201cWe spent a lot of time working on building up the belief that \u2018I can do this\u2019 \u2013 so we\u2019ve been doing a lot of mental resets throughout our matches \u2013 I can see it helping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seniors Rusty Snyder and Bodie Stiegelmeyer return to the Class 3A state tournament seeking their first podium finishes, while junior Teagun Samora makes his state debut.<\/p>\n

Samora placed second at 120 pounds with a tech fall and two pins on his route to the title match. Stiegelmeyer rebounded from a semifinal loss at 113 pounds to pin his consolation opponent and win 6\u20133 in the third-place match. Snyder took third at 144 pounds with two major decisions and surpassed 40 season victories.<\/p>\n

Daves and girls head coach James Snyder continue to build the developing program. \u201cWe have our girls practicing with the boys team, which helps get them prepared for tough competition \u2013 and many of our girls wrestled last year, too, so they\u2019re used to that level,\u201d Daves said.<\/p>\n

Sophomore CeJae Snyder placed second at 115 pounds for the Panthers girls squad and earned a state berth alongside junior AnnaLisa Abeyta, who finished fourth at 110 pounds.<\/p>\n

M-CHS nearly qualified more competitors. Keaton Curleyhair, a 2025 state qualifier, returned from injury to take fifth at 126 pounds. Orion Martineau finished sixth at 157 pounds. On the girls side, Kai Ashmore (170 pounds) and Reese Wing (155 pounds) placed fifth, while Madisyn Schuster finished sixth at 120 pounds.<\/p>\n

Seven San Juan Basin League wrestlers advance to state<\/p>\n

Dolores High School senior Nathan Hill returns to the Class 2A state tournament after qualifying as the Bears\u2019 lone representative last season. This time, he will be joined by three teammates following his runner-up finish at 144 pounds in Cedaredge.<\/p>\n

Hill qualified alongside junior Kenji Edwards, who placed third at 132 pounds; River Wickstrom, who matched Edwards\u2019 4\u20131 weekend to place third at 157 pounds; and sophomore Daniel Jacket, who also took third at 215 pounds.<\/p>\n

Dolores\u2019 JJ Robson placed fifth at 106 pounds after a full slate of six-minute matches, finishing one spot short of qualifying.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek will send two freshmen to Ball Arena. Keaton Banks finished second at 106 pounds, while Conner Horn-Beanland took third at 126 pounds. Both went 3\u20131 in regional competition. Junior Cael Beanland added a fifth-place finish for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Mancos sophomore Traycer White returns to the state tournament after placing fifth at 106 pounds last season. He will compete at 120 pounds this year after finishing as regional runner-up. Teammate Tegan Mestas placed fifth at 132 pounds.<\/p>\n

The state tournament opens Thursday morning at Ball Arena, continues Friday and concludes Saturday with championship and all-state matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores earns four bids, Dove Creek lands two and Mancos adds one to Ball Arena field<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497","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=13497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19007,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497\/revisions\/19007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13497"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}