The Spartans at Thermopylae stood a better chance of winning against the Persians than the Bayfield High School wrestling team did in most duals last season.
It came down to simple mathematics – the Wolverines couldn’t field a team large enough to fill out enough weight classes to avoid forfeits.
Here comes the cavalry.
BHS will have about 20 wrestlers in the room this season, at least doubling last season’s year-end participation.
“Our numbers are good. I’ve been real happy with them,” BHS head coach Todd McMenimen said after a November scrimmage. “The level of competition in the room is much better just by sheer numbers.”
Last year’s lack of competition on a daily basis hurt the Wolverines when they reached the state tournament.
Both Colter McMenimen, now a senior, and Ryan Nava, now a sophomore, finished off the podium and disappointed in their performances.
McMenimen has his sights set on a state title, and a more challenging daily workout regimen could be what pushes him in that direction.
“It’s all my motivation. I can’t end my senior year like that with a devastating loss,” said Colter McMenimen, son of Missy and Todd McMenimen. “We have a lot of new wrestlers, but even having the bodies out to work is so much better than wrestling the same people every day.”
Jake Jensen is one of those new bodies in the room. He will be wrestling for BHS for the first time but isn’t completely uninitiated on the mat.
“I wrestled one year, last year, in Colorado Springs with my dad, and my godfather told me that I need to start wrestling. I wrestled one year, and I liked it and started again when I moved back to Bayfield,” said Jensen, godson of Chad McKee. “It’s been tough.”
BHS will take its first official crack at opposing wrestlers at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in Bayfield for the annual Wolverine Classic.
The tournament will feature multiple mats and teams four teams competing in duals rather than weight class brackets.
Outstanding wrestler awards will be given out for the lower and upper weights.
Center, Ignacio and Pagosa Springs will all face BHS and each other in duals before the end of the day.
It’ll be the first step on the road back to the state tournament for BHS, which hopes to bring more than two wrestlers to the Pepsi Center at the end of the season.
“It means a bunch. Ryan didn’t understand what it took last year all the way, and I think getting up to the Pepsi Center and seeing that, he came to the realization there’s a lot more,” Todd McMenimen said of bringing back two state competitors for this season. “The intensity level needs to pick up. You’ve got to be willing to go harder every minute in the room. I thin it makes a big difference, honestly.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
