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Making Butch Melton proud

Five La Plata County wrestlers wear gold

The Butch Melton Invitational served up revenge in its finals Saturday night in Ignacio.

Bayfield High School senior Colter McMenimen won the 145-pound championship over Monticello’s Zac Musselman with a 15-0 technical fall.

Musselman previously had beaten McMenimen in the championship at Pagosa Springs’ Rocky Mountain invitational.

After the referee raised his hand for the victory, McMenimen fist-pumped and hugged his dad, BHS head coach Todd McMenimen.

“Looking for a little revenge,” said Colter McMenimen, son of Missy and Todd McMenimen. “A lot of it was in my head. The first time I wrestled him, I was scared to wrestle him. This time I came out and knew I could wrestle with him, so that’s what I did.”

The Wolverines brought home two other titles: Ryan Nava at 126 pounds and Sam Westbrook at heavyweight.

Nava won 17-7, and Westbrook pinned his opponent with 1 minute, 2 seconds left in the second period.

BHS finished third in the overall team standings behind winner Bloomfield and Pagosa Springs.

“We finished real strong in placing matches,” coach McMenimen said. “I don’t know if we could have showed up and wrestled a whole lot better.”

Host Ignacio High School finished fourth behind BHS with one individual champion.

Iassic Peña won the 152-pound title 11-3 but had to fight off a near-fall pin attempt in the waning seconds.

“He had a good headlock and just caught me in his headlock and got me down,” said Peña, son of Kenneth and Shasta Peña. “Its good to go through experiences like that so next time you know what to do.”

The Bobcats could have brought home two more titles, but Ethan Appeneller and Stocker Robbins lost in the 138- and 113-pound championship matches, respectively.

Appenzeller was pinned with 59.9 seconds left, while Robbins lost a 9-5 decision.

“We’ve got to improve on our feet and not give up so many caution points on simple mistakes,” Haga said. “We have three weeks left, so it’s pretty well cleaning up what we’ve worked on up to this point.”

Durango High School finished just outside the top five in sixth on the strength of two individual champions.

Matthew Lavengood was tied at 2 in the 120-pound title match when he gave up two points on false-start deductions in a restart. He pinned his opponent once the match returned to open wrestling.

“They were both my fault. I was doing stupid things I shouldn’t have done,” said Lavengood, son of Steve and Tamra Lavengood. “I’m pretty good on top; I can tilt pretty well, and that opened up the opportunity to get the chicken wing.”

Patrick Cunnion won the 182-pound title match with a pin 15 seconds into the third period.

“The hard work we’ve been doing in the wrestling room paid off here this weekend,” DHS head coach John Gurule said. “I’m really proud of the boys and the way they wrestled.”

The Demons and Wolverines will see each other again in a Friday dual in Bayfield, but BHS closes out its Intermountain League dual season Tuesday against Alamosa.

IHS will travel to Mancos next weekend for the San Juan League Championships.

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com



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