{"id":60469,"date":"2014-02-19T21:08:19","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T04:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grapplers-impressive-at-regionals\/"},"modified":"2014-02-20T04:08:19","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T04:08:19","slug":"grapplers-impressive-at-regionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grapplers-impressive-at-regionals\/","title":{"rendered":"Grapplers impressive at regionals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ethan
Ethan Upton takes control of C. Terrell from Norwood earlier this season. Upton heads to the state tournament this weekend hoping build on his recent success.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Six wrestlers, five trips to the podium and four state qualifying efforts: Not a bad haul for the Dolores High School wrestling team, which put on a show at the 2A Region 1 Tournament Feb. 14-15.<\/p>\n

As a team, the Bears placed fifth overall despite entering only six wrestlers in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Ethen Upton<\/p>\n

Leading the way for the Bears, 182-pound senior Ethen Upton (18-3) served notice that he is one of the state\u2019s top wrestlers, winning three consecutive matches in route to a regional championship.<\/p>\n

Especially impressive was Upton\u2019s performance in the finals where he pinned Ignacio\u2019s Christian Knoll (24-7) in the third period.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthen went out there and dominated in the finals,\u201d said Bears\u2019 head coach Leo Garand. \u201cHe\u2019s been very focused and ready to go. I would not be surprised to see him in the (state) finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upton will begin his state tournament run on Feb. 20 against Cheyenne Wells High School\u2019s Jeremiah Cozart (11-17).<\/p>\n

Deano Valdez<\/p>\n

Complimenting Upton\u2019s performance, 145-pound senior Deano Valdez (29-7) also performed impressively, winning twice before losing a tight decision in the regional finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to be going back to state,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cHopefully I\u2019ll be able to accomplish my goal of winning a state title.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez opens the state tournament on Feb. 20 against John Mall High School\u2019s Adam Serrano-Bobian.<\/p>\n

Richard Martinez<\/p>\n

Following the lead of his senior teammates, 113-pound freshman Richard Martinez (29-11) placed third in his first regional tournament, thus qualifying for state.<\/p>\n

Wrestling as well as he has all season, Martinez won three of his four matches at the tournament, capping things off with a pin victory over Mancos state qualifier Rudy Archuleta.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard wrestled a phenomenal tournament,\u201d said Garand. \u201cI was happy with his performance all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez will kick off his state tournament run against Fowler\u2019s Gino DeVore (19-16) on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n

Tristan Medina<\/p>\n

Rounding out the Bears\u2019 state qualifiers, 106-pound freshman Tristan Medina (19-14) finished fourth at the regional tournament.<\/p>\n

Finishing 3-2, Medina secured his trip to state by besting Dove Creek\u2019s Colin Hobbs.<\/p>\n

Medina will open the state tournament against Akron High School\u2019s Tanner Watson on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n

Guy Wallace<\/p>\n

Failing to qualify for state, yet still wrestling well, 138-pound junior Guy Wallace (27-10) finished fifth at the regional tournament.<\/p>\n

Clearly disappointed by his result, Wallace can take solace in the fact that he wrestled extremely well throughout the season, inspiring those around him with several top-notch performances. Coaches and teammates fully expect the hard-working junior to qualify next season.<\/p>\n

\n

Tournament coverage<\/h4>\n

Check the following locations for live coverage of the Colorado State Wrestling Tournament:
\n www.doloresstar.com
\n www.facebook.com\/DoloresStar
\n Twitter @imac_34
\n *Coverage will include live updates and photographs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

regional championship; three other Dolores wrestlers qualify for state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-60469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60469","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=60469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60469"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=60469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}