<\/p>\n
Eight area wrestlers punched their tickets to the Colorado State Championships this weekend \u2013 and there\u2019s a chance that two of them could go No. 1 and No. 2 in the same division.<\/p>\n
On the Mat\u2019s rankings on Thursday placed Mancos senior Richard Martinez at No. 1 in Class 2A\u2019s 120-pound weight class, and Dolores senior Brandon Ward directly behind at No. 2. The Blue Jays are also sending 170-pounder Cameron Fury to Denver, and freshman Zander Eichner will represent the Bears at 113 pounds.<\/p>\n
Montezuma-Cortez had four grapplers earn their way to the Pepsi Center in Shawn Higgins, Stevie Fuentes, Matthew Broughton and Josh Ramos.<\/p>\n
Starting with Class 2A\u2019s top 120 pounders, Martinez and Ward finished first and second, respectively, last weekend at the Class 2A Region 1 Tournament.<\/p>\n
Both opened with a bye and two straight pins to cruise to the regional championship, where Martinez then won by a 10-4 decision. It was the second time the pair met this season, with Martinez taking their previous matchup at the Dawg Fight in Dove Creek in a close 7-6 decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was another good match,\u201d said Mancos head coach Travis White. \u201cAnytime those two match up, it\u2019s a battle. Richard is kind of winning the takedown game, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re ahead. But Brandon is dangerous on bottom, and that\u2019s kind of one of our challenges with him, is how much do we want to wrestle when we\u2019re on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two wrestlers know each other well. Martinez attended Dolores High School before transferring to Mancos, and they\u2019ve competed against each other since their pee-wee days. And now, Martinez and Ward have a chance to face off for the third time this season, but this time, in the state championship match.<\/p>\n
Martinez has the edge on the year and has compiled a 33-1 season record, but Ward, who is 22-4, may have an advantage when it comes to experience after finishing third the past two years at state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids are pretty even,\u201d said Dolores head coach Dane Gallaher. \u201cAnd we got across from each other in the bracket, so we\u2019re really hoping we get to see each other in the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
After going 5-2 at 113 pounds in the regional, Eichner will join teammate Ward in Denver. And while it\u2019s his first year at the state tourney, he\u2019s no stranger to high-profile tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a freshman, but he\u2019s been to middle school state the last two years, so he\u2019s had some exposure to the bigger stage,\u201d said Gallaher. \u201cBut high school is definitely a bigger stage, being in the Pepsi Center with all the people and everything. But we\u2019ll just keep him encouraged and tell him to go out and wrestle hard and let the chips fall as they may.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fury, a junior at Mancos, will also compete in the Class 2A State Championships, at 170 pounds. After opening with a bye and then falling in his first match in last weekend\u2019s regional, Fury caught fire and won three straight \u2013 including a win by fall over the No. 5 Kaden Murray-Owens of Hotchkiss \u2013 to finish fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Hotchkiss kid was beating Cameron up pretty good, but a fire finally lit in Cameron\u2019s eye,\u201d said White. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we\u2019ve all seen him do before, but he hasn\u2019t competitively brought it to the wrestling mat, and it was unbelievable when it happened. He started wrestling better than I\u2019ve ever seen him before, and if he keeps that fire, Cameron really has a very good chance of doing something at state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mancos freshman Breccen Morelli (138) and junior Kaleb Hargraves (160) wrapped up their seasons with 4-3 records and fifth place finishes at the regional tournament, and the Blue Jays took eighth as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was by far our best tournament of the year,\u201d said White. \u201cWe ended up in eighth place, and we only had four kids wrestling. So, to me, that was extremely impressive. They put together their best tournament of their year so far, and both Kaleb and Breccen finished fifth place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finishing up the Bears\u2019 season at the regional tourney, Austin Hackney (126) was 3-3 and finished sixth, Cameron Chavez (106) went 2-2, David Schmittel (152) was 1-2, and Josh Petrow (132) went 0-2. Tezman Hackney didn\u2019t compete at regionals after losing in a wrestle-off to Chavez, but Gallaher said that he is the team\u2019s most improved wrestler on the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of the guys,\u201d Gallaher said. \u201cThey worked hard and we had to work through some adversity this year. We lost some kids to injury and we lost some kids to grades, but the seven that finished the season, I couldn\u2019t be happier with them. They just worked hard every day and did what they needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving on to Class 3A, the M-CHS Panthers have nearly a handful of state qualifiers in Higgins (106), Fuentes (113), Broughton (132) and Ramos (145) \u2013 with sophomores Higgins, Fuentes and Broughton all reaching the title match in their respective classes at the Class 3A Region 1 Tournament last weekend.<\/p>\n
Higgins got a bye and then won two straight before falling to No. 4 Owen Berry of Buena Vista in the championship match to take second. Fuentes opened with a bye and won two consecutive before falling to No. 4 A.J. Serna of Grand Valley in the title match in a 7-3 decision. Broughton also opened with a bye before taking down two ranked opponents to reach the title match, where he fell to No. 3 ranked Anthony Quintana of Buena Vista in a tight 2-1 decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cStevie was wrestling a top-ranked kid and got real defensive against him,\u201d M-CHS head coach Shad Bellmire said. \u201cEspecially when you get to state you\u2019re going to see other tough kids out of other regions, and we cant be defensive on our feet, we\u2019ve got to start taking them down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMatt wrestled his kid really tough, but we just came up short,\u201d he continued. \u201cHe got the legs in, and we couldn\u2019t get out of \u2019em. We\u2019ll have to get off the bottom, and we need to start getting takedowns with those type of kids with Matt as well. And Shawn just got put in a cradle and couldn\u2019t get hand control and the guy locked it up and that was it. They did well getting there, but that\u2019s what happened to us in the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramos, a senior, started with a bye but then dropped a 10-6 decision to No. 6 Trevor Bryant of Pagosa Springs. But he bounced back to win three straight \u2013 including a 5-4 decision over No. 4 ranked Kole Roberts of Delta \u2013 before falling to Bryant 6-2 in the third place match to finish fourth by rule over Roberts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a tough weight bracket,\u201d said Bellmire. \u201cWe knocked off Roberts, and I think he took fourth last year at state, and we beat him to get in. And we were up on Bryant from Pagosa 4-0 and tied it up but got thrown. But beating that Roberts kid was a big match. That was his ticket to state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finishing off their season at the regional tourney were Briggs Durbin (160), who went 3-3 to place sixth, and then Swayde Noyes (170) and Kerwin Tom (182) each went 2-2 and Casen Allmon (126) was 1-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for the kids that did qualify for state, but I\u2019m proud of the whole team that finished the season \u2013 all my wrestlers,\u201d said Bellmire. \u201cAnd thanks to my coaches Ryan Daves and Evan Frost for making this happen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Class 2A and Class 3A Colorado State Championships begin on Thursday with weigh-ins at 11:30 a.m. and preliminary matches starting at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
Following are results from the Colorado state wrestling championships in Denver, with the most recent matches listed first.
\n Montezuma-Cortez
\n Consolation matches
\n Josh Ramos, 145 pounds (3A), wins third place by defeating Quentin Jiner (Weld Central) in a 3-2 decision.
\n Shawn Higgins, 106 pounds (3A), places sixth after losing the fifth-place match to Luke Morrissey (Eagle Valley) in a technical fall.
\n Semifinals
\n Josh Ramos loses to Brandon Buhr (Centauri) by a fall.
\n Quarterfinals
\n Joshua Ramos wins 12-4 decision over Quentin Jiner (Weld Central) to advance to the semifinals.
\n Shawn Higgins is pinned in quarterfinals by No. 1 ranked Jacob Duran (Fort Lupton).
\n Round 1
\n Josh Ramos, 145 pounds, wins 4-3 decision over Ty Addington (Florence) to advance to second round.
\n Shawn Higgins, 106 pounds, wins 11-6 decision over James Cordova (Sheridan) to advance to the second round.
\n Matthew Broughton, 132 pounds, loses by fall to Austyn Binkly (Berthoud) and moves into the consolation bracket.
\n Stevie Fuentes, 113 pounds, loses 6-1 decision to Noah Damian (Valley) and moves into the consolation bracket.
\n Consolation matches
\n Richard Martinez, 120 pounds (2A), wins fifth place by pinning Gabe Ferguson (Paonia).
\n Semifinals
\n Richard Martinez, 120 pounds, loses to Brendyn Nordyke (Holly), 15-6.
\n Quarterfinals
\n Richard Martinez, 120 pounds, wins by technical fall over Santino Mendoza (Rocky Ford) to advance to semifinals.
\n Round 1
\n Richard Martinez, 120 pounds, pins Jayden Castillo (Burlington) to advance to the second round.
\n Cameron Fury, 170 pounds, loses by pin to Ryan Saine (Manzanola) and moves into the consolation bracket.
\n Dolores
\n Consolation matches
\n Brandon Ward, 120 pounds (2A), wins third place by defeating Sean Dale (Cedaredge), 16-6
\n Semifinals
\n Brandon Ward loses to Wesley Vanmatre (John Mall) in a 3-2 decision.
\n Quarterfinals
\n Brandon Ward wins 8-5 decision over Adam Nolte (Swink) to advance to semifinals.
\n Round 1
\n Brandon Ward wins 13-4 decision over Cael Croissant to advance to the second round.
\n Zander Eichner is pinned and moves into the consolation bracket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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