Ryan Nava was coming off a pin against Centauri on Thursday in La Jara for his sixth consecutive victory.
“He’s starting to mature a little bit, beenworking a little harder in the room,” Bayfield High School wrestling coach Todd McMenimen then said of his 120-pound wrestler.
Two days later, the script flipped.
“Immaturity bit us (Saturday),” the Wolverines’ head coach said from Salida.
Nava failed to make weight – “by quite a bit, actually,” McMenimen said – so the Wolverines wrestled the tournament with five instead of six.
Cody Speece picked up the slack.
“I was really impressed with Cody,” said McMenimen, who praised the work of BHS assistant coaches Cole Baughman and Allec Rodriguez for Speece’s improvement on the mat.
“(Baughman and Rodriguez) really have been working with (Speece) on his feet, helping him while he’s on his feet, and he’s showing some huge improvement.”
Speece was the Wolverines’ lone placer in sixth place.
Clay Crawford finished 0-2 in a “tough draw” and “wrestled as well as I’ve seen him wrestle in a couple of years,” McMenimen said. “What I got out of Clay (on Saturday), that’s going to benefit him. The improvements he made were huge.
“Even though he didn’t win those matches, he had a great weekend.”
Gus Roberts (145) and Cash Snooks (138) each finished 1-2 at the tournament.
“I’m really pleased with where he’s at,” McMenimen said of Snooks. “And similar with Gus; he’s a young kid, really a (138-pounder) wrestling up at (145), and his body is not mature enough. With the weight room and age, he’ll get there.”
Taylor Winch (132) finished 0-2 and is wrestling just as much with his confidence as he is his opponents, McMenimen said.
“He’s better than this,” McMenimen said.
Without word from Ignacio High School rookie head coach Cody Haga, the Wolverines’ head coach said the Bobcats wrestled well Saturday in Salida.
Without definitive results, McMenimen said Isaac Pena won his weight class, while Ethan Appenzeller and Blaine Mickey took runners-up, and Stocker Robbins finished third.
Cedaredge, unofficially, won the tournament with a slight lead over Colorado Springs Christian. McMenimen said the final tournament results still were being tabulated when Bayfield left Salida.
“All in all, it wasn’t a great day, but it wasn’t a terrible day,” McMenimen said.
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