{"id":13602,"date":"2026-02-08T17:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-bring-second-place-back-from-sjbl-championships\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:45","slug":"bears-bring-second-place-back-from-sjbl-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-bring-second-place-back-from-sjbl-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears bring second place back from SJBL Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek's Keaton Banks concentrates on sweeping the leg of Norwood's Mace Harris during the 2026 San Juan Basin League Championships first-place bout at 106 pounds Thursday evening, Feb. 5, in Nucla.(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dolores entered Thursday\u2019s San Juan Basin League Championships with seven wrestlers in first-place bouts, giving the Bears a strong chance to claim the 2026 boys team title. The Bears\u2019 collective luck, however, did not hold.<\/p>\n

Norwood\u2019s Kannon Sherman pinned Daniel Jacket 34 seconds into the third period of the 215-pound final, giving the Mavericks a decisive lead. Norwood had led Dolores 43 to 42.5 entering the final two weights, and Sherman\u2019s pin earned six team points plus 1.5 bonus points. Heavyweight Uriah Cook then went unopposed, adding six more and pushing Norwood\u2019s margin to 56.5-46.5 after Jacket\u2019s four runner-up points were included.<\/p>\n

Ignacio (44.5) nearly helped Dolores at 175 pounds, but Brandon Blevins fell 8-5 to Norwood\u2019s Colton Kepley. With Ignacio\u2019s Moise Grognard set to win by default at 190, a Blevins victory would have put Dolores briefly in front before Jacket and Sherman met in a matchup that would decide the title.<\/p>\n

Dolores still earned two championships. At 120 pounds, Adam Hicks pinned Nucla\u2019s Jace Bonacquista 31 seconds into the third period. At 132, Kenji Edwards pinned Mancos\u2019 Tegan Mestas in the second.<\/p>\n

Four more Bears reached finals and finished second. Mason Hill (138) lost 11-7 to Dove Creek\u2019s Cael Beanland. Nathan Hill (144) lost a 6-1 lead before being pinned 52 seconds into the third by Ignacio\u2019s Dillon Brann. Marshall Wickstrom (150) was pinned at 1:35 of the second by Norwood\u2019s Jackson Dinsmore. River Wickstrom (157) was pinned 53 seconds into the second by Ignacio\u2019s Zane Pontine, who recorded his 75th varsity pin.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek (20.5 points) placed fourth with two champions. At 106, Keaton Banks pinned Norwood\u2019s Mace Harris 43 seconds into the second period, and at 126, Conner Horn-Beanland defeated Ignacio\u2019s Joshua Kerrigan.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos'
Mancos' Levi Gardner controls Dolores' Tyler Quintana during the 2026 San Juan Basin League Championships third-place bout at 165 pounds Thursday evening, Feb. 5, in Nucla.(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos (10.5) had one finalist in Mestas and added three third-place finishes. At 120, Traycer White pinned Norwood\u2019s Weston Elwood at 1:42 of the first. At 165, Levi Gardner pinned Dolores\u2019 Tyler Quintana 32 seconds into the first. At 157, Jonah Ritter finished unopposed.<\/p>\n

Dolores added three more third-place efforts. J.J. Robson (106), Tanner Trammel (113, unopposed) and Kale Gates (175) all placed, with Gates earning a 16-1 technical fall over Dove Creek\u2019s Josh Kibel. Taylor Carignan (126) finished fourth. Mancos\u2019 Brady Barger also placed fourth after being pinned by Robson 45 seconds into the tournament\u2019s opening match.<\/p>\n

Nucla, competing without injured standout Jackson McCabe, scored five points and placed sixth.<\/p>\n

Only four girls bouts were contested. Ignacio won three, with 125-pounder Lainee Bradley earning two pins and 130-pounder Kodi Mae Rima pinning Nucla\u2019s Cooper Andrews in 59 seconds. No Montezuma or Dolores County teams fielded girls competitors.<\/p>\n

SJBL boys qualifiers will travel to Cedaredge for the Class 2A Region I Championships on Feb. 13-14. The league\u2019s girls will compete the same days in Hotchkiss at the 4A Region III tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Marshall Wickstrom tries to convert his grip on Norwood's Jackson Dinsmore into leverage during the 2026 San Juan Basin League Championships first-place bout at 150 pounds Thursday evening, Feb. 5, in Nucla.(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Kenji Edwards maintains balance against Mancos' Tegan Mestas during the 2026 San Juan Basin League Championships first-place bout at 132 pounds Thursday evening, Feb. 5, in Nucla.(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Adam Hicks pulls Nucla's Jace Bonacquista to the mat during the 2026 San Juan Basin League Championships first-place bout at 120 pounds Thursday evening, Feb. 5, in Nucla.(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Cael Beanland works to lift Dolores' Mason Hill during the 2026 San Juan Basin League Championships first-place bout at 138 pounds Thursday evening, Feb. 5, in Nucla.(Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores crowns two champions; Dove Creek earns three<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,28,37,29,346,1205],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports","tag-wrestling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602","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=13602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19062,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602\/revisions\/19062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13602"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}