It all came down to two of the most experienced and talented wrestlers in La Plata County on Friday night.
With a dual-meet tied at 27-27 going into the final match between Pine River rivals Bayfield and Ignacio, Bayfield High School’s Ryan Nava stepped onto the mat against Ignacio High School’s Ethan Appenzeller for a 145-pound match fans were eager to see.
The match went into the third period, but it was the undefeated Nava who clinched a Bayfield victory in enemy territory with a pin 5 minutes, 10 seconds into the match to give the Wolverines a 33-27 team victory.
“If someone is gonna be in front of me, I’m gonna treat it all the same,” Nava said of his mentality going into the marquee match. “Place and name shouldn’t matter.
“Either way I was going to pull through for the team. I wasn’t going to take anything else except a win for my team and myself.”
The dual-meet came on the eve of Ignacio’s Butch Melton Invitational tournament in which both teams will compete in an 18-team field that includes Durango.
Both BHS and IHS shuffled their lineups a bit with focus shifting toward regional tournaments and getting wrestlers certified in the weight classes they aim to compete in at regionals and, if they qualify, state.
The night started with a pair of Ignacio wins at 152 and 160 pounds. Timmy Plehinger opened with a second-period pin victory in 2:41 against Jacon Schneider, and Lorenzo Peña followed with a pin of his own with 4 seconds remaining in the first period against Shane Moore. For Peña, it was another dominant performance at 160 as he continues his roll back toward the Pepsi Center for the state tournament, which will be held Feb. 16-18.
The match at 170 pounds was a battle between Macoy Michaeli of Bayfield and Dalton Mickey, and Michaeli was able to earn an 8-3 decision win to cut Ignacio’s early lead to 12-3.
An upset came at 182 pounds, with Ignacio’s Cesar Pedragon coming up with a second-period pin against Bayfield’s John Foutz.
“I had this match on my mind from the beginning of the week,” Pedragon said. “All I wanted to do is beat that guy since he beat me the first time. So excited I finally beat this guy. I wanted to for the longest time.”
Ignacio gave up forfeits at 195 and 285 pounds, and both teams forfeited 220 pounds and 106 pounds.
Bayfield bumped Colby Baker up from 106 pounds to 113 to get him a match against Hunter Robbins, and Robbins secured a 7-5 decision win.
The Wolverines earned two more wins via Ignacio forfeit at 120 and 126 pounds, but the Bobcats stormed back to tie the match at 132 pounds when Dustin Sanchez pinned Bayfield’s Clay Sandburg in 42 seconds. That set up the dramatic final with Appenzeller and Nava.
“It’s always fun for the Pine River Rivalry, we’re trying to bring that back a little bit,” said IHS head coach Jordan Larsen. “I thought we performed well.”
Teams then quickly shifted their focus to preparing for Saturday’s big meet.
“We’re looking forward to getting some good hard matches with tough opponents,” Larsen said. “The focus right now is on the regional tournament and trying to punch some tickets. (Saturday) we’re looking for tough battles to prep us for the big shows later on.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
