{"id":62418,"date":"2019-02-11T15:26:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T22:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-grapplers-tune-up-for-regionals-against-pagosa-springs\/"},"modified":"2019-02-11T22:26:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T22:26:03","slug":"m-chs-grapplers-tune-up-for-regionals-against-pagosa-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-grapplers-tune-up-for-regionals-against-pagosa-springs\/","title":{"rendered":"M-CHS grapplers tune up for regionals against Pagosa Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Knowing that the Pagosa Springs High School wrestling team would present a stiff challenge, the Montezuma-Cortez High School wrestling team took to its home mat on Feb. 8 and did its best to tune up for the postseason.<\/p>\n

Among the Panthers wrestlers who figure to play a significant role in that postseason was 152-pound senior Matthew Broughton, who squared off against freshman junior Tay Barker and dominated from start to finish.<\/p>\n

After taking Barker down several times throughout the first 40 seconds of the match, Broughton tossed Barker to the mat and pinned him with ease. As his arms were raised by the referee after the final home match of his high school career, Broughton grinned and acknowledged his home fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m practicing working on my feet right now, Broughton said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I worked on tonight. I feel good with where I\u2019m at. I\u2019m ready for whatever is coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also performing impressively for M-CHS in the final home match of his high school career was 182-pound senior Swayde Noyes, who pinned fellow senior Connor Aragon with 1:25 in the third period after a back-and-forth match.<\/p>\n

Asked about the keys to his victory over the region\u2019s second-ranked wrestler, Noyes explained that subtle changes in his technique have allowed him to make necessary improvements in advance of the regional and possibly the state tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked (my performance) a lot,\u201d Noyes said. \u201cI changed my stance from being straight-legged in the early season to having bent knees now. I just have to go to regionals and wrestle my match. I have to go out there with 100 percent all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other winners for the Panthers included Kael Buffington, who won a 4-3 decision over Trevor Torrez in the 106-pound match.<\/p>\n

Also putting forth an impressive performance was Austin Featherman, who pinned Tommy Barker in the 126-pound match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went out there ready to wrestle, angry,\u201d Featherman said. \u201cI just need to keep my head up and not get beat mentally (at regionals). My goal is to qualify for the state tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the other notable matches on the evening was a hard-fought contest between M-CHS senior Shawn Higgins and sophomore Brae Bergdolt at 138 pounds. Clearly hampered by a leg injury, Higgins showed great heart before succumbing in overtime and losing an 11-7 decision.<\/p>\n

Jayven Valdez, Stevie Fuentes, Ethan Root, Casen Allmon, Kerwin Tom, Kale Hall and Devan Frost also competed for M-CHS and lost their respective matches.<\/p>\n

In spite of his team\u2019s loss in the dual however, Panthers\u2019 head coach Shad Bellmire expressed satisfaction with his team\u2019s mindset heading into regionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegionals is coming up, and we\u2019ve got to get that mentality of it\u2019s not over until the end of the third period,\u201d Bellmire said. \u201cWe just need to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS will kick off its regional competition in Grand Junction on Feb. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Broughton, Noyes, Featherman and Buffington win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[36,29,346,1205],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-62418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-montezuma-cortez-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\/62418","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=62418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62418"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=62418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}