{"id":29702,"date":"2024-01-18T01:51:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T08:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-wrestling-builds-toward-championships\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:02:17","slug":"dove-creek-wrestling-builds-toward-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-wrestling-builds-toward-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek wrestling builds toward championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores sophomore Nathan Hill faces off against Norwood\u2019s Owen Tackett in a match at Dove Creek High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

At this point in the season, underclassmen wrestlers have gained some of the experience and savvy to make decisions that would belie their age.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an important stride for the Dove Creek wrestling team, whose typically high program ambitions rest on the shoulders of plenty of Class of 2026 and 2027 student-athletes.<\/p>\n

Even the team\u2019s lone senior, Cody Alexander, making his high school wrestling debut this year, is proving to be a quick study for head coach Colten Huskey\u2019s Bulldogs. Jumping from the gridiron to the mat, Alexander leads a team with one junior and four underclassmen in the midst of another strong year.<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek freshman Teagan Larimore looks to finish off a pin against Dolores\u2019 Kenji Edwards in a home match for the Bulldogs. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores sophomore Jacob Stepp reaches out to brace himself after a takedown attempt by Norwood\u2019s Kannon Sherman in a match at Dove Creek High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek sophomore Chad Kline fends off a takedown attempt by Norwood\u2019s Owen Tackett in a Bulldog home match. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Cody Alexander gains leverage on Norwood\u2019s Keegan Tackett in a home match for the Bulldogs. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores freshman River Wickstrom spars with Norwood\u2019s Keegan Tackett in a match at Dove Creek High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few wins in dual matches against Norwood and Dolores in the Bulldogs\u2019 first home matches certainly helped with the building confidence and technique development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good to get some extra mat time,\u201d said Alexander of the team\u2019s wins over the Mavericks and Bears, \u201cand it allowed me some time to practice working on my shots and trying to improve my neutral game.\u201d<\/p>\n

All six Bulldogs own winning records this season, and Alexander\u2019s 20-plus victories headline the list. In the Nucla-Norwood Invite over the weekend of Jan. 13, the senior won all five of his matches, leading a parade of Bulldogs at or near the top of the podium.<\/p>\n

Alexander credits assistant coach Matt Beanland for inspiring him to cap his senior year with a sport that Alexander had done during his junior high years. \u201cHe\u2019s a really good coach,\u201d said Alexander, \u201cand my time playing football has really helped me here, especially being explosive and getting through my opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Frankey Montoya \u2013 also a top finisher at Nucla \u2013 continues a strong third season, having climbed up to one of the top wrestlers in the region in the 215-pound classification.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the core of the program has become its underclassmen, with freshmen composing half the squad. Cael Beanland, Teagan Larimore, and Konnor Spigner join sophomore Chad Kline as part of the foundation for the future of Bulldogs wrestling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys have been willing to come to the wrestling room and work hard,\u201d said Huskey of Alexander and his teammates. \u201cThey\u2019ve pushed each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kline has become a force at 126 pounds \u2013 taking first place in their most recent invite as well \u2013 while Larimore (120 pounds), Beanland (113 pounds), and Spigner (150 pounds.) all finished within the top three in their weight divisions. All told, the Bulldogs will certainly plan to leave a big imprint on the San Juan Basin League meet, which they host on Thursday, Feb. 1 in the Dawg House.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of talent on this team,\u201d added Alexander, \u201cI believe that every single one of us has a chance to go to state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve faced and beaten a lot of quality competition throughout the season, so it\u2019s really exciting to see the drive from the kids,\u201d added Huskey, \u201cevery match is important, and we\u2019ve encouraged these guys to focus on each one, knowing that we\u2019re all working toward regionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have three meets remaining before the league and regional championships in early February. A trip to Hotchkiss kicks off the home stretch with the North Fork Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 20, followed by one more small triangular matchup at home against Monument Valley and Ignacio on Tuesday, Jan. 23. Ignacio will also host the final tune up for the Bulldogs before the SJBL meet and the regional meet on the following weekend.<\/p>\n

Dolores freshman continues solid season<\/div>\n

For the Dolores Bears, the underclassmen production continues to drive the program on an upward trajectory, with the hopes that the payoff will come with the onset of the championship portion of the season.<\/p>\n

Freshman River Wickstrom owns the best record of all the Bears this season, sitting above .500 with just a couple weeks remaining in his first high school campaign. A pair of wins against Dove Creek and Norwood continued to push his belief that he\u2019ll be a factor in the SJBL and regional this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot better with wrestling to win, rather than wrestling to not lose,\u201d said Wickstrom of his ongoing improvement, \u201cI had been giving up points that I shouldn\u2019t in recent matches, so I knew that I\u2019d have to take it at my pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wickstrom downed Norwood\u2019s Keegan Tackett, 9-6, in the first of his two wins on the evening. \u201cCoach (Casen Eldridge) asks us to bring our intensity us,\u201d added Wickstrom, \u201cand that we\u2019re until it for all three periods\u201d \u2013 something that the Bears are doing with increased frequency with each passing week.<\/p>\n

The Bears will head to Page, AZ on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19-20 for their action in this week, then joining Dove Creek in Ignacio for the final regular season tournament, before a return to the Dawg House floor for the SJBL championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs\u2019 Alexander, Dolores\u2019 Wickstrom shine in duals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29702","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=29702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80830,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29702\/revisions\/80830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29702"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}