Bodies were flying on Saturday at Montezuma-Cortez High School during the Cortez Wrestling Club’s peewee tournament.
With teams from Cortez, Mancos, Bayfield, Durango, Farmington, Aztec, Kirtland, Ignacio and Pride, Rez Wrestling and Spartan Wrestling clubs in attendance, there were over 520 youth wrestlers grappling in the filled gymnasium.
Eddie Abeyta – head of the Cortez Wrestling Club – was busy on the microphone on Saturday, but he made sure to express his thanks for the amount of support the tournament received.
“We just want to show our appreciation for the Four Corners Wrestling Association, all the individual clubs and the Cortez Wrestling Club,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for years, and we just want to give some credit to these little kids.”
Abeyta also wanted to recognize the junior high wrestling program, and he noted that while the pee wee wrestlers were at M-CHS, the junior high kids were competing at regionals with hopes of qualifying for state next weekend.
The peewee season, however, is just around the mid-mark. The season started the first weekend in March and runs six weeks before the wrestlers move on to Rocky Mountain Nationals in Farmington.
Next week, the club will wrestle at Farmington before moving on to Bayfield, and then back to Farmington for their final meet.