The Durango High School boys wrestling team faced Piedra Vista on Thursday and Montrose on Friday. The duals were close, but the Demons won both, downing Piedra Vista 37-36 and Montrose 39-31.
The Demons won eight of the 14 weights against Montrose, including a pair of forfeits, to take the dual.
Against Piedra Vista, both teams won seven matches, but DHS scored bonus points in six of their wins compared with five bonus-point victories for PV.
Dillon Harris scored a 7-0 win for Durango at 106 pounds against Owen Jones. Piedra Vista won at 113, 120, 126, 132 and 138. Chris McGrath and Riley Belt, however, only lost by decisions, 8-3 and 8-5.
At 145, Oren Moore picked up a 13-2 major decision over Hunter Schwartz.
Nathaniel Pinto pinned Jesus Flores in 3:12 at 152.
At 160, Dale Harris pinned Makai Runningcrane in 1:11.
Tyler Woodworth bumped up a weight to 170, but still pinned his opponent, Lukas Chaves, in the first period.
At 182, Junior Garcia Rodriguez got pinned by Max Coleman late in the second period.
Ben Belt bumped up two weights to compete at 195 and pinned Ian Chavez in 1:22. Miguel Stubbs won by forfeit at 220, but Alan Rueda pinned DHS’ Vicente Draper at 285.
Against Montrose, Ryan Dugan won 7-5 at 113 for DHS. McGrath pinned his foe in 4:36 at 132. Moore scored a 3-0 decision at 145. Wodworth scored a pin at 160. Ben Belt won 5-2 at 170, Eli Russel pinned his opponent at 220 and DHS won the rivalry match.
Bayfield High School’s wrestling team also came out on top Friday, winning nine of 10 weights against both Montezuma-Cortez and Ignacio simultaneously on its home mat.
Following Pagosa Springs’ 67-0 win over M-CHS, the Panthers were down to just four available wrestlers. The Wolverines began work with 106-pounder Hunter Mars pinning IHS’ Cayle McCoy in 17 seconds. Keaton Pickering and Logan Valencia then received forfeits at 113 and 120, respectively, before M-CHS’ Ryan Pipkin pinned senior Avery Mitzlaff at 132. Mitzlaff had been penned in at 126, but bumped up a weight instead to wrestle instead of taking a forfeit.
That would be the only loss for Bayfield. Senior James Mars pinned Airoughn VanGrandt in 1:34 at 138. Freshman 145-pounder Cash Pratt pinned Panther Heath Woodman in 1:34 to earn his first varsity win. BHS 152-pounder Deegan Barnes pinned David Vreekene in 1:24.
Donovan Candelaria then pinned Ignacio’s John Riepel in 1:53 at 160, and senior Kobe Prior used an escape starting the third period to edge Bobcat senior Tyler Barnes 6-5. The two were tied 3-3 after two minutes and 5-5 after four minutes.
BHS’ Jordan Cundiff closed out the event with a forfeit win at heavyweight while 182, 195 and 220 pounds had double forfeits.
Barnes would then pin IHS’ Keaton McCoy in a bonus match. Lady Wolverine senior Brooke Morse, pinned IHS Faye Hackett 38 seconds into the third period of her event-opening bout, then shut down the whole show by pinning Lady Bobcat senior Lexy Young 16 ticks into the second period after a scoreless first.
BHS seniors Mitzlaff, James Mars, Prior and Morse were also honored at the dual.
