The Durango High School boys and girls wrestling teams made the trip up to Grand Junction for the Warrior Classic last weekend. Senior Ryan Dugan led the boys team with a second-place finish and junior Hana Maletich led the girls with a second-place finish in her weight class.
Durango’s girls squad finished ninth out of 30 teams in a very competitive tournament with 71 points. Grand Junction finished first with 312 points, Eaglecrest was second with 190 points and Farmington was third with 153 points.
On the boys’ side, Durango was 17th with 76.5 points in a super competitive field with 50 teams. Uintah finished first with 304.5 points, Fruita Monument was second with 173 points and Falcon was third with 149 points.
“The kids as a whole competed much better,” Durango boys wrestling head coach Jason Silva said. “After getting one tournament under the belt from the weekend previous, we put in a hard week’s worth of work. It definitely showed in the performance this past weekend at the Warrior Classic.”
Dugan’s second place was his first loss of the year at 126 pounds. He sits at 8-1. In the first round, Dugan pinned Wyatt Shaffer from Fort Lupton. In the second round, Dugan won by technical fall over Rocky Roybal from Rocky Mountain. Dugan won his 150th match of his high school career with his 15-2 win over Jaysen Skeen from Grand Valley in the quarterfinals. Dugan won 9-6 in the semifinals over Trevor Piatt from Olathe, setting up a finals match against three-time state champion from Utah Michael Alexander from Uintah High School. Dugan lost 12-7.
Durango senior Cole Pontine had a busy tournament and finished fourth. He pinned his first three opponents before losing in the quarterfinals at 157 pounds to Carson Melendy from Churchill County 17-10.
Pontine then battled his way through the consolation bracket by pinning his first two opponents and winning by medical forfeit in the third one. In the third-place match, Pontine lost 8-3 to Parker Streight from Uintah.
“He had a great tournament,” Silva said about Pontine. “Cole, he's wrestling with such confidence right now and we've always had to work on that to get the kid to believe in himself. He's doing it. He's just going out there, competing and having fun. In return, he's winning some matches. He's winning a good amount of matches. So I'm really excited for what he's shown us in the first part of the year.”
Dugan and Pontine were the only Durango boys to place at the Warrior Classic. Silva and the rest of the staff split the group up so that a lot of the younger guys could go to the Fruita Monument tournament and get some good mat time before the holidays.
Maletich led the Durango girls team with a second-place finish at 120 pounds. She pinned her first three opponents to reach the finals. Then she was pinned by Shyann Page from Grand Junction in the finals.
Sophomore Aleia Fenberg finished third at 125 pounds. She pinned her first two opponents before being pinned in the semifinals by Harleigh Prater from Grand Junction. Fenberg then won her two consolation matches for third place.
Fellow Durango sophomore Brooke Fenberg finished fourth at 140 pounds. She lost in the first round via pin from Farmington’s Brielle Lucero. Fenberg then won her four consolation matches before losing in the third-place match to Matalina Diaz from Grand Junction.
Ignacio girls wrestling made the trip to Grand Junction and finished 19th. Junior Larissa Espinosa finished third at 235 pounds. She pinned Kayli Keel from Grand Junction in the quarterfinal and then was pinned by Anaya Lee from Farmington in the semifinals. Espinosa then won her two consolation matches by technical fall and decision for third place.
Sophomore Lainee Bradley finished fifth at 130 pounds. She pinned her first three opponents before losing to Gunnison’s Evelyne Cope 9-3. Bradley got pinned in the consolation semifinal before winning her fifth-place match.
Bayfield boys wrestler senior Hunter Mars was the lone Wolverine place; he finished fifth at 117 pounds.
Mars won his first match by technical fall before he got pinned in the second round by Unitah’s Jonathan Garcia. Mars then won four consolation matches before he was pinned in the consolation semifinals. Mars bounced back to win his fifth-place match.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
