The Durango High School boys and girls wrestling programs had high hopes this weekend at regionals. Only the boys were satisfied with their performance and how many wrestlers they’re sending to state in Denver.
After the Durango girls had struggled with illness throughout the season, the Demons only sent two girls to state when they had hoped for double for that.
Based on the regional seedings, the boys were only supposed to send two wrestlers. But the Demons are peaking at the right time and are sending six wrestlers to state.
“We exceeded expectations,” Durango boys wrestling head coach Jason Silva said. “As a staff, we expected maybe four to five kids and we ended up with six. So it was a great tournament for us.”
Silva estimated the Demons haven’t had this many male wrestlers at state since the early 2000s.
The Durango boys finished fifth out of 13 schools with 112.5 team points at the CHSAA 4A Boys Wrestling Region 1 Regional in Coronado High School, Colorado Springs. Pueblo East finished first with 303 team points. The top four wrestlers in each weight class at the regional make it to state.
“It was probably the toughest region in 4A to get through,” Silva said. “It's always pretty tough, so we knew that; that's why we created such a hectic schedule this year to be prepared for that. It definitely showed off, because going into the tournament, a lot of the kids didn't have great seeds because of their records, because we put them through some tough competition during the season. But that's a big reason why they exceeded the expectations.”
Durango senior Ryan Dugan is making his way back to state after he won the regional at 126 pounds and heads into state 35-4 this season. Dugan pinned his first opponent before he won 13-1 over John Paul Salazar from Mountain View High School in the semifinals. In the final, Dugan pinned Julian Espinoza from Pueblo East. It was revenge for Dugan in the final because Espinoza beat Dugan at state last year.
Dugan enters the state tournament as the top seed. Silva said Dugan’s wrestling angry after missing out on being Durango’s first state champion since 2000 last season. He’s put in a lot of work to be a more well-rounded wrestler this year, according to Silva.
Freshman Ryder Martyn continued to wrestle well for Durango and finished third at 132 pounds to make it to state. He lost in the quarterfinals to Diego Sirio from Mountain View but bounced back to pin his first two opponents in the consolation bracket. Martyn won 6-2 in the consolation semifinals over Eagle Valley High School’s Alex Good and beat Sirio 12-10 in the third place match.
Junior Asher Thiessen may have been the surprise state qualifier of the group at 138 pounds. On the junior varsity team only two weeks ago, Thiessen was pinned in the first round before he won two matches in the consolation round. In the consolation semifinal, Thiessen was pinned by Cole Good from Eagle Valley. Thiessen bounced back to win the fifth place and fourth place matches.
“Him trusting in the process and becoming a coachable athlete this year has definitely improved and that has improved his wrestling significantly this season,” Silva said about Thiessen. “I don't know if that's what he wants to hear, but over his career, he's been relatively hard-headed on what needs to happen. We made some breakthroughs in regards to that.”
Durango senior Wyatt Bartel finished third at 150 pounds and broke through to get to state this year after finishing fifth the past two years at regionals. Bartel pinned his first two opponents, but lost 9-7 to Zach Aldaz from Pueblo East in the semifinals. Bartel bounced back to win his consolation bracket semifinal match and beat J.J. Neilson from Pueblo West in the third place match.
Senior Cole Pontine is another member of the Demons that’s heading to state after his fourth-place finish at 157 pounds. He won his first two matches and was pinned in the semifinal. Pontine recovered to win two of his next three matches to finish fourth.
Junior Jacob Belt is also heading to state after he finished third at 165 pounds. Belt faced some adversity with an ankle injury he suffered last Monday. He battled through it in the first round but lost to Thomas Dunn from Roosevelt High School 10-1 in the quarterfinal. Belt found his groove after that and won his next three matches, 6-3, 3-1 and 1-0 to finish third.
The Durango girls finished 10th out of 13 schools with 59.5 points in the CHSAA 5A Girls Wrestling Region 1 Regional in Coronado High School, Colorado Springs. Grand Junction Central finished first with 253 points.
“There were some great performances,” Durango girls wrestling coach Kyle Hanson said. “We had talked about how rough it was to have sickness hit us right there at the end of the season. We had really hoped that we'd be able to take four … Marie Baker wrestled so hard; she did great. Aleia Fenberg wrestled well and has so much potential. She really wrestles, day in and day out, so aggressively and is continuing to add discipline to the way that she wrestles.”
Baker, a sophomore, finished second at 110 pounds. She pinned her first opponent and won the semifinal match over Mimi Boone from Littleton High School 10-2. Baker lost in the final 5-1 to Bella Arellano-Gandy from Coronado High School.
Junior Hana Maletich had aspirations of making it to state but finished fifth at 115 pounds. She had a super difficult draw and didn’t have her best day on the mat; Maletich went 2-3.
Fenberg, a sophomore, finished third at 120 pounds. Her only loss came in the quarterfinal with a pin by Shyann Page from Grand Junction Central. Fenberg pinned the rest of her opponents.
“The thing that I've really appreciated about her at this point in the season is that she is remaining coachable,” Hanson said about Fenberg. “She's discovering more about how she works … and I feel like she's really maturing, growing and understanding herself … she just has so much potential that us just finding those really sweet opportunities. We're not talking about landmark change. It's little tiny habits of head position or arm position; those kinds of things will make a really big difference in the way that she feels on the mat and the amount of confidence that she takes into her matches.”
Sophomore Lillian Fenberg finished sixth at 130 pounds after she was disqualified during a challenging match. Hanson said she had the chance to go to state but understands where things went wrong.
The state championships inside Ball Arena in Denver will take place on Thursday through Saturday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
