Having put Durango’s first test Wednesday evening out of their opponent’s reach just by showing up, junior Braxton Waddell and sophomore J.J. Vickers effectively clinched DHS the 2024 La Plata County Duals’ title by showing out.
Recipients of six-point forfeit wins separating the Demons from meet-hosting Ignacio, the upper-weight duo then put DHS in the clear against Bayfield. With Durango suddenly trailing 24-23 after Wolverine 165-pounder Caelan Ramos pinned Lance Baker inside of 20 seconds left in the first period, Waddell regained DHS the upper hand by pinning Justin Westbrook with 50.5 ticks left in the first at 175, and Vickers then stuck BHS’ Micah Cornelia 16 ticks into the second period at 190 – helping the Demons follow up a 42-27 win over IHS with a 41-30 victory over Bayfield, last year’s rulers.
“Waddell, Vickers …. All the kids are starting to get confidence in themselves and their abilities,” said Durango head coach Jason Silva. “And now, to finally see it show on the mat is really nice.”
After the showdown started with BHS’ Hunter Mars pinning DHS’ Isaiah Aguilar with 0:31.3 left in the second period at 113 pounds, Demon standout junior Ryan Dugan logged an 18-2 technical-fall win over Porter Sutherlin at 120 and Bayfield standout senior Keaton Pickering pinning Asher Thiessen 1:14 into the first period at 126. The dual took an important turn when DHS’ Asher McKennie was to face Logan Valencia at 132 … only to step onto the mat unopposed and claim six crucial points.
“Normally our guy has a good chance of getting a pin at that weight, so … if we’d have had a pin, we’d have won by one,” Wolverine coach Adam Mars said after doing some fast – and accurate – recalculating in his mind. “But you know, the overall effort was really good; we had a couple guys out, but we won a couple really close matches.”
In addition to Ramos’ pin, Bayfield’s Coan Naranjo earned an 11-8 win over DHS’ Dylan Begay at 144, Donovan ‘Dante’ Candelaria notched an 8-3 win over Jacob Belt at 157, and Connor Martindale concluded the dual winning by forfeit at 106.
After McKennie won, 4A Durango began pressuring the 3A Wolverines with 138-pounder Riley Belt pinning Reese Appenzeller 43 seconds into the first period, and 150-pounder Cole Pontine pinning Keegan Johnston with only 2.4 ticks left in the first. And after Waddell’s and Vickers’ victories put DHS up 35-24, heavyweight Warren Uptain received a forfeit win (neither side had an entrant at 215 pounds) preceding Martindale’s.
Three exhibition bouts polished things off, with the last a clash between Dugan and Pickering – who prevailed 13-7.
“You know, they called me earlier today and said ‘Does Keaton want to wrestle Dugan, just as an exhibition?’ I said, ‘Absolutely!’” recalled Mars. “Any time you can get two guys that … are top of the state and want to wrestle each other, I’m all for it. And they’re good buddies, you know, do wrestling stuff together, and they love to have that competition.”
Against 2A Ignacio, the Demons quickly overcame Bobcat Aven Bourriague’s opening 44-second pin of Aguilar with a forfeit to Dugan, a Thiessen first-period pin of Joshua Kerrigan, a McKennie first-period pin of Dillon Brann and a forfeit to Riley Belt. IHS’ Zane Pontine then halved the deficit to 24-12 by pinning Begay in 54 seconds, and Bobcat teammate Lincoln deKay followed with a 7-2 win over Cole Pontine.
Jacob Belt then gave Durango some breathing room by pinning Brandon Blevins with 7.7 seconds left in the second period at 157 pounds, but Kendrick Nossaman brought Ignacio back to 30-21 by pinning Baker at 165 with 50.2 left in the second.
Waddell and Vickers then claimed their forfeit wins, but the ’Cats had something of a last laugh when heavyweight Kyle Rima pinned Uptain with 20.1 seconds left in the first period.
“I was excited; the stands were as filled as I’ve seen them in a while,” IHS head coach Jordan Larsen said. “And the boys wrestled hard; it seemed we had some good matchups across the board with both schools. So I’m really happy about it.”
Bringing the entire event to a close, Ignacio and Bayfield battled in the third dual for Pine River Valley bragging rights, with the Wolverines coming out on top, 46-28.
Sutherlin set the tone early at 120 pounds, pinning Kerrigan with less than four seconds left in the first period. Pickering then won by forfeit, but Brann responded with an 8-0 major decision win over Tyler Berry – bringing the Bobcats back to 12-4. Appenzeller received a forfeit at 138, but IHS closed to 18-16 after Pontine pinned Naranjo in 57 seconds and deKay stuck Johnston 28 ticks into the second period.
Candelaria countered for BHS with a 12-4 major at 157 over a game Blevins, and Ramos followed with an exhausting second-period pin of Nossaman. Forfeits to Westbrook and Cornelia increased Bayfield’s lead to 40-16 before Rima won by forfeit and Bourriague pinned Martindale at 106 with 11.7 seconds left in the second period. Hunter Mars then shut the show down with a forfeit win at 113.
“Between Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio … man, we come together,” Mars said. “The coaches all respect each other, like each other – and give each other a hard time – and have a lot of fun doing it. Everybody’s always putting their best foot forward … and I love that we do this every year.”
The ’Cats are indeed slated to compete next at Page, Arizona’s Sand Devil Classic (Aimee Larsen’s Lady ’Cats will invade PHS’ concurrent She Devil Classic), beginning at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, and continuing into the next evening.
Following a 3A Intermountain League dual on the 18th at Pagosa Springs, Mars’ Wolverines will drive to Aztec on the 20th for AHS’ Tiger Duals.
Presently scheduled to travel to Montrose on the 19th for 4A/5A Southwestern League dual action, Silva’s Demons then will also venture to Castle Rock for 5A Castle View’s Sabercat Slam on the 20th.
“We’ve been doing pretty solid as a team lately; we just went to a tournament in Arizona last week – a tough tournament, good competition for us to get better,” said Waddell. “Coming back here, it’s not as hard competition, but it’s still good mat time.”
DHS’ Lady Demons, meanwhile, are scheduled to also compete this weekend in Page.
