La Plata County’s high school wrestlers made the trip up to Montrose on Friday and Saturday to battle against some great competition at the Western Slope Showdown.
The Durango girls wrestling team had an impressive showing with a fifth-place finish out of 20 teams in the Western Slope Showdown event on Saturday.
Moffat County dominated with 191 points to win the girls’ tournament with Alamosa in second place with 101 points. Durango was in fifth with 78.5 points and wasn’t far behind Eagle Valley in fourth place with 82 points.
Demons junior Hana Maletich and sophomore Aleia Fenberg led the way with second-place finishes in their weight classes.
Maletich finished second in the 120-pound weight class and earned 22 team points. Maletich is 11-3 overall this season. She won her quarterfinal matchup against Bayfield’s Hannah Taylor with a pin. Maletich then won by pin in the semifinals over Montezuma-Cortez’s Paislee Mestes. Her run of wins ended against Samantha Maestas of Alamosa in the final when Maestas won by technical fall.
Fenberg finished second at 125 pounds and scored 24 team points. She won by pin in the first round over Monte Vista’s Alyssa Garcia, in the quarterfinal over Rifle’s Shaelynn Wallberg and in the semifinal over Vika Odud from Gunnison. In the final, Fenberg was pinned by Eagle Valley’s Lauryn Ward. Fenberg has a 9-5 record this season.
Durango sophomore Lillian Fenberg finished third at 140 pounds and scored 17.5 team points. She won her first match in the quarterfinals by technical fall before she got pinned in the semifinals. Durango junior Quincy Ellis finished fifth at 135 pounds and freshman Keelyn Reynolds finished sixth at 130 pounds.
The Durango boys wrestling team began its season on Friday at the Western Slope Showdown after dealing with some illnesses in the first few weeks of the season. Durango finished 17th out of 40 schools on the boys’ side.
Cedaredge won with 181 points. North Folk High School was second with 155 points and Alamosa was third with 154.5 points. Durango finished with 67 points.
“With it being our first event and having to overcome some obstacles in the beginning of the season, the kids performed really well,” Durango boys wrestling head coach Jason Silva said. “I don't think it reflected really on the podium.”
Silva said the Western Slope Showdown is the toughest tournament in Colorado before Christmas. The field of teams are mostly from Colorado but there are some teams from New Mexico.
Senior Ryan Dugan took his first victory of the year after a strong junior season. He’s up at 126 pounds this year and scored 25.5 points for Durango. Silva said Dugan put on some weight for football season and is unsure whether he’ll stay at 126 or drop down to 120.
He started off the tournament with a technical fall over Roaney Requeno from Basalt in the second round. Dugan won 8-4 over Jaysen Skeen from Grand Valley in the quarterfinals and he won 12-5 over Olathe’s Trevor Piatt in the semifinals. In the final, Dugan won 11-4 over Cedaredge’s Josh Martinez.
Demons senior Cole Pontine finished fifth at 157 pounds. He pinned Konner Spigner from Dove Creek in the second round and Mathias Martinez from Grand Junction in the quarterfinal.
In the semifinal, Pontine had to forfeit because of an illegal mat return and his opponent, Charlie Miller of North Fork, got a concussion.
“So, unfortunately he had to forfeit out,” Silva said about Pontine. “He was winning by five or six points before that happened. So he should have been in the finals, but Cole put on a great performance this weekend. I was concerned about his conditioning and his mat time, but he went out ready to go.”
No other Durango wrestler placed but Silva is excited about the potential of his freshman class. He said it’s a strong group that should contribute on varsity this season.
In the girls tournament, Ignacio wasn’t too far behind Durango and finished tied-seventh with 73 points. The Bobcats had two winners with sophomore Lainee Bradley at 130 pounds and junior Larissa Espinosa at 235 pounds.
Bradley scored 27 points after she pinned Meeker’s Emma Ford in the quarterfinal and Evelyne Cope of Gunnison in the semifinal. In the final, Bradley beat Kayla Deaton of Moffat County 15-6.
Espinosa pinned Moffat County’s Kearra Cicchini and Emily Hockaday before pinning Meeker’s Aurora Stallings in Espinosa’s final match.
Ignacio junior Krysten Neil finished fourth at 135 pounds and junior Madison Egger finished fifth at 100 pounds.
The Bayfield girls finished 11th. Sophomore Leilani Ramos finished second at 100 pounds. She pinned Brynn Anderson from Gunnison in the first round, Madison Haskin North Fork in the quarterfinal and Addi Whaley from Soroco in the semifinal. Ramos got pinned in the final by Basalt’s Emely Mejia Garcia.
Senior Lucy Porter finished third at 145 pounds for the Wolverines. She pinned Stephanie Delgado from Rifle before being pinned by Vanessa Herrera of Moffat County in the second round. Junior Bailey Blouin finished fourth at 125 pounds. She pinned Hailey Seamons of James Irwin in the first round and Anessia Alvarez of Olathe in the quarterfinal before she got pinned in the semifinal by Lauryn Ward of Eagle Valley.
The Ignacio boys finished 23rd and were led by Aven Bourriague’s second-place finish at 120 pounds.
Bourriague won 10-3 in the second round over Malchijah Perez from Gunnison. He then won 12-5 in the quarterfinals over Eugene Meder from Alamosa. Bourriague then won 1-0 over Cash Martinez from Cedaredge in the semifinal before losing to Isaiah Harrison from Mountain View by technical fall in the final.
Junior Lincoln deKay finished fifth after he won 12-3 over Durango’s Julius Arredondo in the first round and pinned Palisade’s Jacob Snodgrass in the second round. Nehemiah Whaley from Valley won 6-5 over deKay in the quarterfinal.
Bayfield finished tied-26th in the boys’ tournament.
For a look at these teams’ upcoming schedules click HERE.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
