After a rough start to the state wrestling championships on Thursday, Durango rallied back on Friday.
“We had a great tournament, and the kids wrestled extremely well,” said DHS head coach Robert Finneseth. “We dropped a few matches that we probably shouldn’t have, but we had way more highs than lows. If you take Thursday out of the scenario, I couldn’t have asked for more out of the kids.”
Seniors Jacob Fenberg and Tyler Woodworth both stayed alive until Saturday at the Class 4A state wrestling championships in Denver.
Needing just one more win to reach the podium, both wrestlers came up just short.
At 113 pounds, Fenberg faced David Estrada of Thomas Jefferson in the consolation third round. Finneseth said Fenberg had a controversial locking-the-hands penalty called against him in the third period, which sent the match into overtime. After a scoreless sudden victory overtime, the wrestlers went into a tiebreaker. Fenberg chose down and couldn’t escape in the first 30-second period. In the second half of the tiebreaker, Estrada managed to escape with just two seconds left to win 5-4.
Fenberg went 2-2 at state, scoring 8-5 and 7-3 decisions and finishing his season 27-12 overall.
Woodworth also lost a close 5-2 decision in his 160-pound consolation third-round bout against Zach Kottenstette of Pueblo West. Finneseth said Woodworth gave up a reversal and two, starting the match down 4-0, so he had to scramble and take some risks.
Woodworth went 2-2 at state, losing his first match in sudden victory but coming back and scoring a pin and a major decision. Woodworth ends his season 37-9 overall.
Durango’s three other state qualifiers were eliminated Friday.
Senior Ben Belt lost a 1-0 decision at 170 against Pueblo West’s Matthew Holderedge, finishing 1-2 at state and 45-9 overall.
Finneseth said Belt got to his feet multiple times in the third period, but before he could escape, Holderedge would crab ride him, getting called for a potentially dangerous move four or five times without getting dinged for stalling.
“I’m super-proud of Ben. That’s the best match he ever wrestled against that kid,” Finneseth said. “He wrestled extremely well except the first day but redeemed himself so much.”
Freshman Ryan Dugan also went 1-2 for DHS at 106 pounds, pinning one foe but losing 9-0 to Manuel Amaro of Pueblo East in the consolation second round to be eliminated. Dugan finished his season 35-9 overall.
The coach said Dugan, who only weighs 104 pounds, gave up some inches and some size, but “still wrestled great and gave all he had.”
Sophomore Riley Belt also competed at state for DHS at 138 pounds, but lost his two matches by fall and a 11-1 decision. Belt finished 27-21 overall. “In his first match, he was a little shell-shocked, but in the first round of consolations, he went out there to wrestle and showed some grit,” Finneseth said.
As a team, Durango scored 14 points to finish 29th out of 53 teams. Pueblo East had two champs and six total placers to win the team title with 135.5 points, followed by Cheyenne Mountain (124.5),Greeley Central (109), Erie (102) and Roosevelt (89) in fifth.
The Demons also went 15-4 in dual meets this year.
“It was a great season,” Finneseth said, adding that “getting on the podium in 4A is extremely difficult.”
