IGNACIO – Dustin Sanchez capped off his senior day for the Ignacio High School wrestling team in memorable fashion at Saturday’s Butch Melton Invitational at IHS.
Sanchez not only received a standing ovation to a raucous crowd inside of his home gymnasium along with two other seniors, Skieler Grooms and Hunter Robbins, but he ended the tournament on top, as he won the 160-pound weight class and won in a 13-7 decision over Zane Chapman of Aztec.
“Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better day,” Sanchez said. “To beat two really good opponents in two (state) placers from New Mexico at my hometown tournament on senior day, it’s probably one of the best feelings I’ve had all year, maybe even in my career. Coach (Jordan) Larsen was saying all week in the room whether we were going to show up, or flop. We showed up and we really wanted to make a statement in front of the home crowd.”
Sanchez was not the only one who performed well at the home tournament, as the Bobcats had seven placers and finished with 52 points, which was good for seventh overall. Aztec thrashed the competition as the Tigers had nine wrestlers going for a title at their respective weight classes, as they racked up 209 points en route to the team title. Pagosa Springs was second with 163.5, Farmington took third with 149.5, while Montezuma-Cortez had the highest local finish with 74 points, which was fifth. Bayfield faced good competition but were hoping for better results, as the Wolverines finished in sixth with 66 points.
Ignacio head coach Jordan Larsen said that a packed gym and “fantastic wrestling” fueled his team’s performance. In addition to Sanchez, Grooms made the final of his weight class (138), but lost on a technical fall, 23-6 to Cody Candelaria of Aztec.
“I’m really, really happy that we came to battle,” Larsen said. “In every match, all of our guys went out there and battled their hardest, and a lot of them are looking a lot crisper than they were three weeks ago. We’re looking to peak at the regional, and I think we can do that based off of today.”
In Sanchez’s match against Chapman, he got off to a slow start and was down 4-0 after the first period.
“It was a complete turnaround from his performance last weekend in Paonia,” Larsen said. “He didn’t have a bad weekend, but there was a match in there where we didn’t see the resiliency. I think it said a lot of him going down against a good kid, and sticking his chin in there and continuing to fight and win the match.”
Clay Campbell (170) and Jeremy Roderick (195) finished eighth, Cesar Pedregon (182) took fifth and Randy Hererra (285) finished in fourth for IHS.
Larsen said while he’s proud of the work his seniors put in, he believes they each have more in the tank.
“It’s probably the closest I’ve come to being emotional for a senior class,” Larsen said. “It’s just a special group ... I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”
IHS will have the San Juan Basin League Championships on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Dove Creek High School.”
Bayfield High School wrestling head coach Todd McMenimen did not hesitate when asked what lessons he learned about his team’s performance on Saturday in Ignacio.
“We’ve got to be able to finish in those placing matches,” McMenimen said. “From top to bottom, we didn’t win a single placing match. The rule of thumb is that you want to finish odd, but we finished even, regardless if you’re wrestling for the first or fifth-place match. I’m not disappointed in how we wrestled, we just have to learn how to finish in those big ones at the end.”
John Foutz (195) was pinned by Caleb Varzeas of Aztec in the first period. Daniel Westbrook (220) was pinned as time expired against Taj Van der Linde of Cedaredge at the end of the second period in his championship match, shook hands and ran out of the gym. McMenimen said that Westbrook was “pretty upset with himself.”
“He knew he should’ve wrestled that match a little bit differently, and for guys like John and Daniel, when you see how much work they put in the room every week, each loss becomes so personal, so I get it,” McMenimen said. “Coming into that match, the conversation was ‘we need to stay outside and take shots and be aggressive, work from the outside on in and watch out for Taj’s arm spin because of how dangerous it’s been this season.’
“Both John and Daniel have to open up more, and two weeks ago, we were wrestling with confidence and were shooting on people and attacking all of the time. Today, neither one of them wanted to open up and take a shot at the end ... It wasn’t the strategy for either of them, but we need to get back to that. When they are firing their double legs, they’re unstoppable. We’ve gotta get back to shooting.”
Bayfield went 0-of-6 in placing matches, as Shane Moore (170) and Geron Goring (145) took sixth, James Mars (120) took fourth and Dylan Pickering (126) took third.
BHS will take on Alamosa in a 3A Intermountain League dual at 6 p.m. Thursday at BHS.
bploen@durangoherald.com
