When the wrestling season kicked off on Saturday, La Plata County teams knew they would be tested early on at the Maverick Duals at Colorado Mesa University, and despite the challenge, all three schools, Bayfield, Ignacio and Durango had strong performances in the first meet of the season.
The Bayfield High School wrestling team went 1-4 on the day as a team, but head coach Todd McMenimen, who is in his second stint as coach, was impressed with his team’s performances.
“We definitely had some standouts,” McMenimen said. “Myself and my assistant felt like everybody put forth a really good day of wrestling. Daniel Westbrook went 4-0 on the day and split time between 220 pounds and heavyweights. He defeated the No. 3 wrestler in the state at 220 from Cedaredge and Daniel beat him with a major decision of 12-4. He then wrestled the No. 2 ranked wrestler at 285 from Paonia and he beat him by pin fall, so it was great.”
Also going undefeated on the day was John Foutz, the fifth-ranked wrestler in the 195 pound weight class, recorded three pin wins at the 220 weight class. Colby Baker (138) went 4-1 while Trey McKee (152) went 2-1. Trey’s lone loss came at the hands of the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class, Sackett Chesnik of Paonia.
“We’ve got a lot to work on and I was pleased with the effort that we put out,” McMenimen said. “There’s a lot of technical stuff to work on that we need to focus on in the next couple of weeks and we’ve got to try to continue to improve between now and Christmas break time to make the big push for January.”
The Bobcats went 3-2 as a team on Saturday and had solid performances from numerous wrestlers. Senior Dustin Sanchez had an impressive day on the mat as he went 4-1 at 160 pounds, while fellow senior Skieler Grooms went 3-2 and recorded two pins and had a 4-2 decision in his first match of the season. Randy Herrera (285) went 4-1 and recorded a pin in his first match. Jeremy Roderick (195/220) and Clay Campbell (182) had solid days as they each picked up wins.
“I’m very pleased with the performance,” said IHS head coach Jordan Larsen. “There was no quit in any of them, from the young to the experienced. It was an outstanding day for all the boys. I’m looking forward to going back to the drawing board for next weekend with Dove Creek.”
DHS had solid individual performances from wrestlers despite only bringing six. The Demons fell to all five opponents they faced, however head coach Leo Garand liked the performance from a squad that wasn’t at its full capacity.
“Considering we only had six guys, I thought we did really well and I felt like it was a good day on the mat,” Garand said. “It was a tough tournament and was full of great competition like Grand Junction, Rifle and Delta. Those are all really strong teams and our guys performed admirably.”
Tyler Woodworth, who headed into the season ranked fourth at 145 pounds in Class 4A, went 4-1.
“Tyler had a great day and was really close to being 5-0,” Garand said. “He made a mistake and it cost him, but otherwise, he was really fun to watch out there. He’ll learn from it and I liked a lot from what I saw yesterday.”
Garand said much of his team was up a weight class or even two, which was the case with Owen Eicher (120), who went 3-2, and junior Austin Albrecht (195/220), who went 0-4 but was close in all his matches.
“Everybody wrestled to their potential and despite the bigger weight classes, they wrestled hard and fundamentally, did some great stuff,” Garand said. “Once these other weight classes open up, guys like Austin will get back to it and I think then we’ll get a good understanding of where we’re really at. But all in all, it was a good day and I couldn’t have been prouder of the way they fought.”
bploen@durangoherald.com
