Mancos, Dolores and Dove Creek combined to produce five league champions during the San Juan Basin League tournament on Thursday in Ignacio.
The Blue Jays had three wrestlers go undefeated in the league duals and come out as champs.
Richard Martinez took the 120-pound crown, Chance Garcia came out on top in the 126-pound class and Everett Strazza-Whalen, who was the only wrestler in the 195-pound division, finished 4-0 from forfeits.
Austin Howerton (182) and Casey Orange (285) went 3-1 for Mancos, while Kaleb Hargraves (145), Drew Morgan (152) and Cameron Fury (160) were each 2-2 and Nick Valdez (138) finished at 1-3.
Mancos fell to Norwood/Nucla (58-16) and Ignacio (33-30) in duals, but took down Dove Creek (54-12) and Dolores (42-30) to finish second as a team.
“Our kids wrestled today; it was a good outcome,” said Mancos head coach Grant Hobbs. “This is our third year of the program and we’re pushing to be in the top two in our league. That’s a pretty acceptable thing in my eyes.”
Hobbs noted the tough competition the Blue Jays will have in their regional next week – in a tournament that determines who goes to the state meet in Denver – but said the league duals helped build confidence and that he believes his team is peaking at the right time.
“Of course I’m going to be the coach that says I’d like to see all of them go to state,” Hobbs said. “But being realistic, I think we’ve got a shot at three to four kids that we can qualify. Which is huge. We didn’t qualify any last year, so one is better than none.”
Brandon Ward was the Dolores Bears’ lone champion – in the 113-pound division – but his first place finish didn’t come easily.
Ward was 4-0 on the evening, but he trailed for nearly the entire match against Dove Creek’s Rhett Quackenbush.
With less than seven seconds remaining in the third period and trailing 4-2 against Quackenbush, Ward shot in for a take down to earn two points as time expired sending the match into overtime. And in the sudden death overtime, Ward struck first to come away with a 6-4 victory.
Cameron Chavez (106), Austin Hackney (126) and David Schmittel (170) all went 3-1 for the Bears, while Josh Petrow (120), Skieler Grooms (132) and Logan Fuller (138) finished 2-2 and Aiden Hopcia (145) at 1-3.
The Bears dropped duals against Norwood/Nucla (57-18) and Mancos (42-30), but won against Dove Creek (39-12) and narrowly edged out Ignacio (30-28) to finish in fourth place.
Dolores head coach Dane Gallaher said that the league duals were great preparation for the regional meet next weekend.
“Nucla/Norwood, this is the first time we’ve seen them this year,” he said. “So that was good for us to see them here and see a couple of those weights.”
The Bears may see a lot of the same competitors next weekend at the regional meet, and while Gallaher would love to qualify four wrestlers for the state championship, it would be great to sneak in even more with some upsets.
“I’d love to qualify four, but we’ll just have to see,” said Gallaher. “It’s such a tough region. There are 14 top-level teams and it’s going to be a dog fight. Outside of a few kids that are looking really good, I’m sure there are going to be some upsets.”
Dove Creek senior Case Baughman led the Bulldogs with a 4-0 record and finished as the 132-pound league champion. Head coach Shane Baughman said that Case could use the league duals as a momentum-builder heading into the regional, but that his goal was in Denver at the state meet.
Quackenbush finished 3-1 for the Bulldogs, with his only loss coming in the overtime-thriller against Dolores’ Ward.
Baughman said the match was similar to a previous meeting between the two, where Quackenbush led late but Ward came from behind to win.
Quackenbush is 0-2 against Ward this season, but Baughman said there is a high-likelihood of the two meeting at the regional, and he’s curious to see how their third match turns out.
“We’ll see what happens in that third match,” he said. “That third match is always interesting because its what they call the ‘swing match.’ And it’s hard to beat somebody three times when it’s that close.”
Ricky Adams wrestled most of the season at 170, but in the league duals he competed in the 182-pound class, finishing 2-2.
“We wanted to test the waters up there at 80’s,” explained Baughman. “We wanted to do it last weekend before league, but he was sick so we couldn’t. So he tried it tonight and it just didn’t work out. So we’ll put him back down at 70’s (for the regional) and see how he does.”
Logan Myers finished 0-4 in the 138-pound division, and with only four wrestlers, Dove Creek was forced to forfeit at 10 weights and dropped each of their duals to finish fifth.
Mancos, Dolores and Dove Creek will all meet next weekend at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction for the regional tournament. There, the top four wrestlers in each weight class will move on to the state tournament in Denver, Feb. 18-20.