The Southwestern League and Western Slope League held a combined boys’ wrestling championship on Thursday in Grand Junction.
Durango High School’s Demons showed up ready to compete and had eight of its 10 wrestlers who competed finish fourth or better. Riley Belt scored an individual title at 132 pounds to lead DHS, and the Demons finished second out of 12 teams with 122.5 points.
“We wrestled hard,” said head coach Robert Finniseth. “We had a good showing for the league tournament and represented well.”
Fruita, On the Mat’s No. 5 ranked team in Class 5A, had seven wrestlers finish first to win the team title with 278.5. Central, the No. 7 ranked 5A team finished third with 115.5, followed by Eagle Valley (112.5), Glenwood Springs (106), 4A No. 10 Montrose (104), Palisade (97.5), Steamboat Springs (93.5), Grand Junction (91), Rifle (78.5), Battle Mountain (40) and Summit (13).
“I’m proud of them,” Finniseth said. “We’re a young team right now so any points they put on the board is building for the future.”
Belt pinned his first opponent and then won 8-0 in the semifinals. In the finals, Belt squared off with Isaac Lepe of Glenwood Springs and won his title with a pin in 1:24.
“Riley looked good,” Finniseth said. “He came ready to wrestle and had a good showing.”
At 113, Ryan Dugan got upset in the semis, but he came back and pinned his next two opponents to finish third for DHS.
“He came back with a little bit of an attitude and wrestled well after that,” the coach said.
Braxton Waddell and Brett Franklin also finished third for DHS. Both of them fell in the semis to the eventual champs, but rallied back to win two in a row. Waddell pinned Henery Dismuke of Steamboat in 34 seconds in his third-place match while Franklin beat Jack Banks of Grand Junction 6-4 for his bronze.
Four other Demons also finished fourth, including Elijah Ponce at 120, Wyatt Bartel at 138, James Storm at 157 and Warren Uptain at 215.
Ponce pinned three of his opponents en route to his finish. Bartel won his first match 4-3 and later pinned his opponent in the consolation semis. Storm pinned two of his opponents to place fourth.
At 126, Izik Garrett came up short in his first two matches, but finished strong. His seventh-place match against Hunter Hess of Montrose went into overtime, but Garrett was able to get the final takedown to secure the win.
Uptain and Jacob Belt (144) both went 0-2.
Chris McGrath (150) has been out with a hurt knee, but the coach said he hoped he’d be back this week. After competed with a hurt elbow for a lot of the season, Cole Pontine elected to let the injury heal for football. “He kept fighting through it, but it was guarded wrestling,” Finniseth said.
The league tournament was also the regular-season finale for all the teams. The wrestlers will now compete in regional championships this week where they’ll try to qualify for the state championships Feb. 16-18 at Ball Arena in Denver.
The Demons will host the 4A West Region 3 championships on Friday and Saturday this week, where the top-four each wrestlers in each weight class will advance to state.
Teams competing at DHS will include 4A No. 3 Pueblo County, No. 6 Roosevelt, No. 7 Falcon. No. 9 Montrose, Battle Mountain, Eagle Valley, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Pueblo Centennial, Pueblo South, Pueblo West, Vista Ridge and Wheat Ridge.
The action will begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday at DHS.
“If you get past the first round, from the quarters on its really good wrestling,” Finniseth said.
