A weekend in Delta County couldn’t really have gone too much more efficiently for IHS wrestling.
After all the ‘blood rounds’ at the Cedaredge-hosted Class 2A-Region I Championships played out Saturday afternoon, an impressive five of six entered individuals had earned the right to represent Ignacio at the 2026 state championships, to be held Thursday-Saturday in Denver at Ball Arena.
“It went great for us,” head coach Jordan Larsen said. “We had a good couple of days.”
On the girls’ side, Ignacio had four wrestlers qualify for state at the Class 4A-Region III Championships on Friday and Saturday at North Fork High School in Hotchkiss.
Senior Lincoln deKay continued his push for a state crown by placing first at 165 pounds. He first dominated Wray’s Osmany Roman by 15-0 technical fall in the bout’s opening two-minute period, then did likewise to Meeker’s Orion Musser in an elapsed 3:44 before clinching the tourney title with a 7-0 victory over WGHS’ Walker Howell.
IHS senior Aven Bourriague established himself as a serious state contender by going 3-0 at 113. Wray’s Isayah Rivera stood no chance and lost via 15-0 tech in just 1:58, and Hayden’s Israel Perez lost via 8-0 major decision before Bourriague completed his first-place work defeating Cedaredge’s Jared Roberts 11-6.
Senior Zane Pontine will also rep Ignacio one last time at state; though denied first place at 157 pounds by WGHS’ Landon Lockhart, who prevailed 11-6, Pontine still went 3-1 in Cedaredge with a first-round 17-0 tech of Olathe’s Bridger Vincent, then first-period pins of Oak Creek Soroco’s Ryder Smith and Hayden’s Noah Weber.
Additionally, senior Joshua Kerrigan will head to the Mile High City after finishing second at 126. Pinned 26 ticks into the second period by CHS’ Liam Martin in the weight’s finale, Kerrigan ended up 3-1 including a 51-second pin of initial opponent Ethan Noll of Hayden, plus a 7-4 triumph over semifinal foe and San Juan Basin League rival Conner Horn-Beanland (who’d beaten Kerrigan on the 5th at the Nucla-hosted 2026 SJBL Championships) of Dove Creek.
Bobcat senior Dillon Brann also will be making the trip after placing fourth at 144 pounds. Able to tech Cedaredge’s Blake Ryan 22-7 in first-round action, Brann then lost 17-12 to SJBL nemesis Nathan Hill, whom he’d defeated for the first time ever at the SJBLs, of Dolores, but then managed to pin West Grand’s Luke Hickam early in the third period after gaining a 16-14 lead.
But after falling behind 3-0 to Hayden’s Danek DeMorat, Brann was pinned at the one-minute mark. Slated to next face, as luck would have it, Ryan, Brann’s season was prolonged via a no-contest result.
Ignacio, which entered the event still ranked No. 7 in 2A, scored 109.5 points and, by half a point over Hayden, ultimately stood sixth out of 15 attending teams. Top-ranked Cedaredge, to no surprise, topped the table with 205, while No. 10 Wray racked up a second-place 177. Third-ranked Meeker tallied 163 and came in third, with SJBL kings Norwood (159) fourth and Kremmling West Grand (138) fifth in the standings.
On the girls’ side, senior Larissa Espinosa can this year become the first Bobcat girls wrestler to place three times at Ball Arena after clinching yet another state berth by winning the 235-pound division.
Espinosa needed just 1:01 to subdue Olathe’s Zayla Lawrence and earn the title – helping Ignacio’s girls more than hold their own and post a fifth-place score of 94 points. OHS, however, piled up a winning 155, with Meeker (114), NFHS (108.5) and Alamosa (97.5) also finishing above the Bobcats in the meet’s 19-team standings.
IHS’ Krysten Neil continued adding to her own memorable senior season and will also next travel to Ball Arena in Denver after earning the regional’s 135-pound crown. After receiving a first-round bye, she then pinned AHS’ Adrianna Griego 53 seconds into the second period, defeated Gunnison’s McKayla Singer by 11-2 major decision and ultimately pinned Gypsum Eagle Valley’s Julia Borejszo – who’d led 3-2 on the scoreboard – with 10 ticks left in the first period.
Competing at 125, junior Lainee Bradley reserved herself a state spot by going 2-1 and placing second to Olathe’s Nevaeh Cortez – who’d led 7-0 before pinning Bradley 1:35 into the finale’s second period. Freshman Ireland Cates, however, surprised Ignacio’s staff most by securing fourth place, and thus a state berth, at 140.
Following a first-round forfeit win over OHS’ Tairyn Lowenberg, Cates then lost to EVHS’ Nora Abbott via second-period pin (rather than via technical fall; Abbott was leading 14-0 at the time) but then recomposed herself to not only go up 3-0 on North Fork’s Danika Queen, but pin Queen in an elapsed 2:39 and take the most important bout to date in her young IHS career.
Two more Bobcats nearly qualified for state, but both Kodi Mae Rima and Eliska Prokopova ended up placing fifth in their respective divisions.
Foreign-exchange student-athlete Prokopova actually won her final actual bout in an Ignacio singlet, defeating NFHS’ Kenleigh Keller 12-8 at 145, but upcoming opponent Ellie Ford of Meeker, who’d pinned Prokopova in the weight’s opening round, was then awarded a no-contest victory with fourth place at stake, leaving Prokopova with, effectively, a 2-3 tourney record.
In the mix at 130 pounds, Rima overcame a one-point deficit against Olathe’s Azure Wallace to pin the Pirate in an elapsed 3:46 and improve her Region III record to 2-2 before a no-contest loss to Gunnison’s Tea Waggoner, who’d pinned Rima in the second period of Rima’s previous bout, leaving Rima on the proverbial outside looking in.
