The Montezuma-Cortez wrestling team competed in the Tiger Duals in Grand Junction last weekend, facing off against five different schools and finishing with a 2-3 dual record.
The Panther grapplers came out on the wrong side of things in duals against Arvada West (36-42), Moffat County (27-44) and Thunderridge (32-39), but picked up wins against Coal Ridge (42-27) and Grand Junction (42-9).
Head coach Shad Bellmire knows how difficult it is to come out on top in duals when his team is forfeiting matches at five different weight classes (113, 160, 170, 195, 220) – and giving away 30 points when matched up against full rosters – so his goal is to focus on head-to-head matchups.
“We’ve always tried to win head-to-head,” he said. “That’s been our philosophy since we don’t have a full team.”
And on Saturday, four of the M-CHS wrestlers dominated their head-to-head contests, with Matthew Broughton, Josh Ramos, Briggs Durban and Victor Perez all going undefeated.
At 120 pounds, Broughton finished with three pins, a forfeit win and a tech fall victory by the score of 15-0 to improve to 9-2 on the season.
“Matt definitely stepped up,” Bellmire said. “He was a little banged up from the last dual, but he still wanted to get in there and get after it. As a freshman, he’s shown a lot of toughness.”
Ramos improves to 10-1 on the year, going 5-0 with four pins and a close 2-1 decision victory over Moffat County’s Issik Herod in the 138-pound class.
At 152, Briggs Durban finished 5-0 with three pins and two forfeits, and heavyweight Victor Perez also wrapped up the day with a perfect 5-0 record, racking up four pins and a forfeit.
Stevie Fuentes dropped just one match on the day in the 106-pound class, going 4-1 to improve his season record to 9-2.
Sonny Boren went 4-1 in the 145-pound class, Kerwin Tom was 2-3 at 182 pounds, Vinny Conklin was 1-4 in the 126-pound division and Jared Gray finished 0-5 at 132 pounds.
“They all did a good job,” Bellmire said of his team’s performance. “Hopefully we can take that mindset into this weekend at the Warrior Classic. It’s a tough meet.”
The Panthers wrestle in the Warrior Classic at Grand Junction Central High School on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 18-19.