Bayfield High School hosted one of the top wrestling teams in the state Thursday night. The wrestling matched the rankings.
Class 2A No. 3 Centauri came away with a 56-11 win in the Intermountain League dual-meet against the Class 3A Wolverines. The matches, though, were much closer than the scoreboard.
Class 3A Bayfield’s lone win of the night came from James Mars, the sixth-ranked 132-pound wrestler in Class 3A in the most recent On The Mat rankings from Tim Yount.
Mars dominated the match and earned a 16-1 technical fall victory early in the second period against Cyrus Sandoval. Mars nearly earned a pin victory to end the first period, but Sandoval was able to keep his shoulders off the mat to force a second period that Mars would quickly end.
“We had that little skirmish right there, and I had him on his back; I really wanted to pin him there,” Mars said. “But it didn’t work out that way. Then I racked up two or three tilts, and that was about it. It’s always nice to get on the mat, then get right back off of it.
“It’s always nice to win your match for a dual because you only get one chance. Just that one match. And when you win that one match, you’re done for the day; you did the best you could do, and that’s all you can do. Not like in a tournament where you have several matches in a day. I like the dual environment.”
Other than a forfeit win at heavyweight, Mars’ conquest would be the lone victory for the Wolverines on a tough senior night.
“We wrestle Cortez and Monte Vista Saturday in Cortez. Those are our last two league duals, then there’s regionals next week in Pagosa,” Mars said. “I think (this loss) is going to help us; I think we’re going to have a whole-new intensity and focus in practice. It’s a good slap-in-the-face.”
Though the Wolverines didn’t get much in the way of wins, the Wolverines still wrestled well.
The night started with a thrilling match at 106 pounds between Centauri’s sixth-ranked Riley Valdez and Bayfield’s 11th-ranked Keaton Pickering. It was an intense match throughout, but Valdez came away with a 3-1 decision win.
“Two high-ranked kids, and with Keaton, we just need to fix a couple things here and there and we win that,” BHS head coach Todd McMenimen said. “Getting his elbow a little too deep on his front headlock and letting (Valdez) control it. If we work on getting that elbow back up high, I think he gets those takedowns in the first period, and then everything changes. It just would change the whole match, the way everyone comes out for the second period.”
Centauri would win again with seventh-ranked Mario Vigil at 113 pounds, as he claimed a 16-0 technical fall win against Avery Mitzlaff. Then, Ayden Romero of Centauri won at 120 pounds with a first-period pin of Johnathan Chapman 1 minute, 4 seconds into the match.
“I was real pleased with Johnathan at 120. He’s a 110-pound kid wrestling 120s and a second-year wrestler, and he’s finally starting to try some of the stuff we’ve been teaching him in the room,” McMenimen said. “And when he does things we’re trying to teach him, it works; he got that takedown, and that was something that we’ve been working on with him.”
Bayfield senior Hunter Anderson would fall via pin 1:13 into the second period against Centauri’s Robert Coombs. After Mars’ win, Centauri got rolling again when No. 9 Josh Polkowske pinned Morgan Hastings 1:02 into their match.
A huge match came at 145 pounds before Bayfield’s third-ranked senior Dylan Pickering and Centauri’s top-ranked Eyan Chavez. Pickering would get caught and pinned with only six seconds to go in the first period.
“Not disappointed in, but disappointed for our two seniors,” McMenimen said. “Both of them drew tough matches. Hunter was right there, and he tends to put himself in bad positions sometimes, but if we can get that corrected it’ll keep him out of those danger spots. And Dylan, what can you say? Chavez is Chavez; there’s a reason he’s been to state his freshman and sophomore years, placed. And Dylan’s trying some different stuff and learning some different things. He gave up that first takedown doing exactly what we’ve been showing him, but the same mistake he makes in the room is exactly the mistake he made there, let (Chavez) catch that other ankle.”
At 152 pounds, Centauri’s third-ranked Jordan Martin would topple Bayfield’s eighth-ranked Deegan Barnes. The match was as close as 6-4 in the second period after a Barnes takedown, but Martin was able to score a reversal with 11 seconds to go in the period to take a more comfortable 8-4 advantage to the third.
The final match of the night would come down to overtime between Centauri’s 12th-ranked Erik Mestas and Bayfield’s sixth-ranked Kobe Prior. The Bayfield junior held a 6-3 lead late in the third period, but Mestas scored one escape point before a last-second two-point takedown directly in front of the Centauri bench to tie the match at 6-6.
Quickly in overtime, Mestas feinted a takedown one way before diving for Prior’s right leg. He secured the single-leg takedown, this time in front of the Bayfield bench, to earn his two points and an 8-6 decision victory.
“Yesterday in practice, (Prior) had some sort of stomach thing going that really drained him. I could tell in that third period he had nothing left,” McMenimen said. “I think if fresh, if he’s not feeling so sick, I think he wins that one pretty handily. I mean, I don’t think the score was way off, but I think he’s pretty much in control of it. He just had nothing at all left in that third period for a takedown; and then in overtime, you could just tell. Stood straight up and had nothing to get into a shot or anything.”
Centauri head coach Cahlen Keys was left energized by his team’s performance in the win.
“I thought we performed great. I mean, the scoreboard’s not necessarily indicative of what it was like; we just ended up on top in a lot that were close,” Keys said. “Definitely good to be winning matches that are close, especially going down the stretch into the final few weeks of the season toward state, knowing that you can grit some out like that.”
Joel Priest contributed to this report.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
