{"id":29388,"date":"2024-02-04T01:08:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T08:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/martin-and-mancos-rise-to-the-top-at-san-juan-basin-meet\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:55:22","slug":"martin-and-mancos-rise-to-the-top-at-san-juan-basin-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/martin-and-mancos-rise-to-the-top-at-san-juan-basin-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin and Mancos rise to the top at San Juan Basin meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos'
Mancos' Quinton Martinez awaits the referee's mat slap, signaling a pin of Dolores' Nathan Hill during 132-pound action Thursday at the Dove Creek-hosted San Juan Basin League Championships. Martinez went 5-0 at the weight and placed first.
\n Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

As Mancos\u2019 football season wound down, the hope was that injured senior Levi Martin could heal enough to possibly have, well, something of a wrestling season in the winter.<\/p>\n

Even if that meant just a couple weeks. Preferably, say, in early February.<\/p>\n

And as tough as the Blue Jays have been during the 2023-24 grind without the three-time State qualifier, fans \u2013 and competitors \u2013 assembled Thursday night, Feb. 1, in Dove Creek got a good look at the crew\u2019s resolve with him back in uniform. And also glimpsed a little history as MHS emerged victorious at the round-robin San Juan Basin League Championships.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Zane Pontine hoists Dove Creek's Cody Alexander high while looking for a takedown during 144-pound action Thursday at the San Juan Basin League Championships. Pontine placed second at the weight. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal\n

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Nathan Hill looks to turn Dove Creek's Chad Kline onto his back and into position to be pinned during 132-pound action Thursday at the San Juan Basin League Championships. Hill placed fourth at the weight.
\n Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Cael Beanland controls Nucla's Nolan Cressler during 120-pound action Thursday at the DCHS-hosted San Juan Basin League Championships. Beanland placed first. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mancos'
Mancos' Levi Martin receives congratulations from the referee who worked Martin's match versus Dove Creek's Cody Alexander Thursday. Martin's win over the Bulldog senior \u2013 who conceded during the bout due to injury \u2013 was the 100th of his prep career.
\nJoel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Kenji Edwards inverts Mancos' Teagen Mestas during 113-pound action Thursday. Edwards placed third.
\n Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After pinning Norwood freshman Keegan Tackett to begin his night inside The DawgHouse, Martin then defeated DCHS senior Cody Alexander to ensure himself a chance at placing first among the 144-pounders. Unbeknownst to most outside Mancos Wrestling, the victory over Alexander \u2013 who conceded during the bout due to injury \u2013 was Martin\u2019s 100th in his decorated high school career, and was immediately commemorated on the mat with a custom banner as DCHS A.D. Shane Baughman narrated the moment via the public-address mic.<\/p>\n

Not resting on the hard-earned laurels, Martin then logged No. 101 by dealing Ignacio sophomore Zane Pontine a 21-6 technical-fall defeat with 1:06 still remaining in the third and last two-minute period to complete a 3-0 run through the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into it knowing he was a ranked wrestler, but I also went in knowing I was going to win,\u201d said Martin. \u201cDon\u2019t really know much else about him, but I just did what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Jay junior Brandon Vannest soon finished his own 2-0 outing at 157 by dealing Nucla junior David Quigley a 17-1 tech with 1:18 left in the third period, and Mancos concluded the final round with sophomore 165-pounder Jacob Martin pinning Norwood freshman Colton Kepley in 1:19, senior Cole Dainty-Guilfoyle outlasting Nucla senior Arthur Connelly 6-3 at 190, and junior 132-pounder Quinton Martinez pinning Nucla senior Derrick VanDellen 1:14 into the second period.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, one of my best matches of the entire year,\u201d Dainty-Guilfoyle, Class 2A\u2019s defending 175-pound State Champion, said of his test against Connelly, who nearly gained control in the last minute. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be very tough at State.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd just being the fact that we\u2019ve wrestled here a lot of times \u2013 ever since I was in elementary school \u2013 and we\u2019re seeing some familiar faces \u2026 this tournament was pretty special for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore Colten Vannest went 2-0 at 215 pounds and Martinez 5-0 (with four pins plus a medical-forfeit win, over DCHS sophomore Chad Kline) as Mancos \u2013 minus on-the-mend senior heavyweight Elliot Sam \u2013 accumulated 99.5 points. Paced by VanDellen\u2019s 4-1 mark at 132 and Connelly\u2019s runner-up 1-1 effort, Nucla \u2013 lacking recovering senior 138-pounder JW Naslund \u2013 snagged second with 71. IHS (43) came in third, followed by Norwood (42), Dove Creek (36.5) and Dolores (34).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went in here knowing we shouldn\u2019t get pushed too hard,\u201d said Brandon Vannest, \u201cbut \u2026 had to come in and wrestle tough. And I think as a team we wrestled well. There\u2019s a few things we need to touch up in the room \u2026 going into regionals, and then I think we\u2019re on course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only Norwood sophomore Jackson Dinsmore\u2019s second-period pin of Dillon Eichner at 106, then Nucla freshman Jackson McCabe\u2019s points win over freshman Teagen Mestas at 113 denied the Jays a clean sweep of all weights at which they were represented. Eichner, a senior, finished a runner-up 0-1 at the event while Mestas ended up 1-1. Jacob Martin went 1-0 and Dainty-Guilfoyle 2-0 as MHS won 16 of 18 total engagements.<\/p>\n

Mancos will next see action Feb. 9-10 in Monte Vista at the Class 2A-Region IV Championships, while the other SJBL squads will all travel that same weekend to Cedaredge for Region II.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point there\u2019s nothing we really can change. Like, our methods are our methods and what we do for training is going to be the same,\u201d Dainty-Guilfoyle said. \u201cSo at this point you just kind of have to prepare mentally, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having a pretty good season so far \u2013 this was really my first tournament back \u2013 but we\u2019re hoping to win regionals and hopefully State,\u201d declared Martin, now 4-0 overall since being cleared to compete. \u201cI\u2019m feeling good \u2026 but we\u2019ve got to push at least four into the finals to have a chance at winning State, so we\u2019re pushing hard in the room right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile \u2026<\/div>\n

Ignacio sophomore Lincoln deKay and senior Kyle Rima captured league titles in Dove Creek at 150 and heavyweight, respectively, with each winning his only match. deKay pinned Dolores senior Zach Taylor in an elapsed 2:16; Rima worked much faster, sticking Nucla freshman Jacob Davis in just 32 seconds. The \u2019Cats, however, were without sophomore lower-weight standout Aven Bourriague, who was fighting off an infection.<\/p>\n

Pontine finished second at 144, as did sophomore Joshua Kerrigan at 120 behind Dove Creek\u2019s Cael Beanland. Sophomore Dillon Brann placed sixth at 132, with DHS\u2019 Nathan Hill fourth and DCHS\u2019 Kline fifth. Dolores\u2019 River Wickstrom went unopposed at 138, as did DCHS\u2019 Teagan Larimore at 126 and Nucla\u2019s Paxtin Caruso at 175.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ignacio ranks third at league showdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,37,29,1205],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-wrestling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29388","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=29388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80733,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29388\/revisions\/80733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29388"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}