{"id":29393,"date":"2024-02-03T23:42:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T06:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/martin-mancos-rise-to-the-top-at-sjbl-wrestling-championships\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:55:22","slug":"martin-mancos-rise-to-the-top-at-sjbl-wrestling-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/martin-mancos-rise-to-the-top-at-sjbl-wrestling-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin, Mancos rise to the top at SJBL wrestling championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\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 at the weight, going 2-0 including a pin of Cressler. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DOLORES COUNTY \u2013 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

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 in Dove Creek got a good look at the crew\u2019s resolve with Martin back in uniform.<\/p>\n

A little milestone also occurred as Mancos emerged victorious at the round-robin San Juan Basin League Championships, when Martin notched his 100th career victory.<\/p>\n

After pinning Norwood freshman Keegan Tackett to begin his night inside The DawgHouse, Martin then defeated Dove Creek senior Cody Alexander to ensure himself a chance at placing first among the 144-pounders.<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s 100th win was immediately commemorated on the mat with a custom banner.<\/p>\n

Martin then logged win No. 101 by dealing Ignacio sophomore Zane Pontine a 21-6 technical-fall defeat with 1:06 left in the third and final 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 Martin said. \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.<\/p>\n

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

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 Brandon Vannest said. \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, followed by Nucla freshman Jackson McCabe\u2019s points win over freshman Teagen Mestas at 113, denied the Jays a clean sweep of all weight divisions they took part in. 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 Mancos 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

\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

Ignacio duo captures league titles<\/div>\n

Bobcats sophomore Lincoln deKay and senior Kyle Rima won championships in the 150-pound and heavyweight divisions, respectively, with each winning their 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.<\/p>\n

The Bobcats, 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 Dolores\u2019 Nathan Hill fourth and Dove Creek\u2019s Kline fifth.<\/p>\n

Dolores\u2019 River Wickstrom went unopposed at 138, as did Dovs Creek\u2019s 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":29394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[642,2587,846,37,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-wrestling","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29393","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=29393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80735,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29393\/revisions\/80735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29393"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}