BAYFIELD – Lopsided dual-meet scores matter little to the Bayfield High School wrestling team at this point in the season.
The Wolverines lost 46-26 to perennial power Alamosa on Thursday in Bayfield, but their focus is on mat time before the impending regional tournament Feb. 14 in Montrose.
BHS gave up four forfeits and only gained two.
The Mean Moose boast 11 state team titles, tied with Montrose for the most all time, with the most recent coming in 2013.
“Alamosa, you got to give it to them, they’re always tough. There’s a reason they’ve won so many state championships. They’re well coached, and they’re always a tough team,” BHS head coach Todd McMenimen said. “In terms of matches wrestled, it was 26-22. That’s a solid performance against a good team. The matches we lost were matches we should have lost.”
Bayfield’s Garrett Beebe ran into top-ranked Isaiah De La Cerda at 106 pounds and was pinned with 5 seconds left in the first period.
De La Cerda finished second in state last year as a freshman.
“That’s a match we probably should be losing right now,” McMenimen said.
Ryan Nava of the Wolverines faced a bit of a flashback against Alamosa’s Tell Kelley.
The two met in the regional championship match last year at 120 pounds, but they squared off at 132 pounds Thursday.
Nava wrestled up from his customary 126-pound slot to face Kelley.
Kelley pinned him with 32.8 seconds left in the second period after Nava needed some work on his calf in injury time in the first.
“There’s a reason he’s the No. 2 kid in the state,” McMenimen said of Kelley.
BHS’ Jake Jensen escaped a pin at 138 pounds but lost a 16-4 major decision to Devon Atencio.
Austin Baughman rounded out the Wolverines’ losses for the evening after Nate Henrey pinned him with 34 seconds left in the first period.
“We’ve been throwing poor Austin Baughman to the wolves,” McMenimen said. “He’s giving up a ton of weight, first year wrestler. He’s been battling hard.”
It wasn’t all gloom and doom for the Wolverines, though.
Sam Westbrook started the match with a thunderous pin of Preston Duran at heavyweight.
Westbrook nearly locked down the fall at the end of the first period, but the buzzer went off first.
He only had to wait 33 seconds into the second period to have his hand raised.
“Sam’s been phenomenal at heavyweight, way beyond what I would have guessed him to be at this point of the season,” McMenimen said.
On the lighter side, Bayfield’s Jake Sandrey (113) took a slim lead over Cade Arelleno 2-0 in the first period and secured a 4-0 decision with an escape at the start of the third period.
Colter McMenimen continued his roll with a 17-2 technical fall over Reis Martinez at 145 pounds.
He clinched the final near fall by getting into position with a full headstand.
“The most strength is in your core, holding tight with everything to keep your legs straight and get the leverage on it,” said Colter McMenimen, son of Missy and coach McMenimen. “Kids know that I tilt a lot, thinking, ‘oh he can’t roll me when I’m flat,’ and that’s an easy way to get leverage for a counter.”
Cash Snooks may have received the loudest cheer for his pin over Zak Bernal at 152 pounds.
“He started pushing back into me, and I’d been working on getting my arm back under him to throw him,” said Snooks, son of Kristin and Michael Snooks. “It finally happened where he pushed back into me when I wanted to throw. Everything went my way.”
The Wolverines’ wrestling weekend just is starting, though. They’ll dual Durango at 7 p.m. Friday in Bayfield’s auxiliary gym before next weekend’s regionals.
“There’s no reason we can’t take six or seven to the state tournament this year,” coach McMenimen said. “It’s going to take some performances like we got out of Cash (on Thursday) to do it, but there’s no reason we can’t get those performances out of those guys and do it.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
