Making her Senior Day in an Ignacio wrestling singlet unforgettable, Faye Hackett went 3-0 in her division at the Butch Melton Memorial Girls’ Invitational to capture first place and help the Bobcats finish fourth in the team standings.
Competing at 130 pounds, Hackett first pinned Farmington junior Jadyn Jones. Hackett then won by forfeit over Bayfield senior Kori Jenkins before pinning Bloomfield, New Mexico freshman talent Tiana Williamson 31 ticks into the third period of the championship.
“I think there was something in my head that just told me to keep going,” Hackett said. “I was about to give up, but then there was this sudden push and …. I don’t know, it just sort of happened. Can’t really explain it.”
“It was very emotional for me,” she continued. “This is my last wrestling tournament (in Ignacio) and I wanted to work hard for it, but also wanted to give it some time and be patient.”
Including a pin against Bloomfield freshman Aspen Rhodes in 18 seconds, IHS junior Kacey Brown – defeated only by FHS eighth-grade prospect Eliana Juarez in the finale – helped the ’Cats total 47 team points with her 2-1, runner-up result at 125. Freshman Marlene Martinez-Perez went 1-2, but placed third at 140 after pinning Bloomfield sophomore Elysse Smith-Oliver in an elapsed 2:33.
And with three medalists among just five entrants, Ignacio head coach Aimee Larsen was elated.
“Really cool for our girls,” she said. “Overall, we’re just seeing an improvement in the kids. Those girls are bonding in a way that I don’t know if we’ve seen in past years with such a small team.”
“Like … on Friday night, we went to Piedra Vista and three of my five kids had their parents there – and they said, like, ‘No I don’t want to go home with you; I want to go home with the team,’” she said. “I had the kids coming home … with me. They were talking, going over their matches, having fun – it’s just a cool group of girls sticking up for each other and helping each other … and cheering for each other.”
“It was a great tournament and they all worked very hard,” said Hackett, the IHS girls’ sole senior. “I’m super proud and just so glad we have a girls’ team I can cheer on.”
When all was said and done, Farmington captured first place with 134.5 team points and Bloomfield (95) ended up second. Aztec, New Mexico, came in third while Bayfield (31) finished just after Ignacio to round out the top five. Shiprock, New Mexico (24), Durango (11) and Newcomb, New Mexico (6), rounded out the standings.
“We were thinking we were going to have around 14 or 15 teams, and … teams pulled out for whatever reason – so we ended up with seven,” Larsen said. “We had six- and eight-man round-robins going, and I think it went really well. The girls all got a good number of matches, and it was cool how they saved the final round for in the main gym – with the boys, and the crowd.”
After losing her first match at the Melton, Bayfield freshman Bailey Blouin couldn’t be beat. Stringing together pins of Ignacio’s Audrey Roderick, Bloomfield’s Harley Rightmire and FHS’ Matya Benally, Blouin ended up a first-place 3-1 at 120 pounds and was named lower-weight Outstanding Girls’ Wrestler.
Jenkins, meanwhile, finished 1-2 and took third at 130 by pinning the aforementioned Jones in just 53 seconds.
Entering both Teresa Benac and Sadie Hanson at 115 pounds, Durango’s points all came from Benac, who went 1-2 in her contested matches to finish third with a 1-2 mark. A fourth pitting against Hanson, who went 0-3, was apparently not contested, and Hanson was awarded fifth place behind Shiprock’s Danica Johnson.
At 155 pounds, Samantha Collins went 0-4 and ended up in fifth place.
One of Collins’ losses came against Aztec standout Makayla Munoz, unbeaten this season and gunning for her fourth NMAA state championship. In a display of sportsmanship, Munoz and teammate Mia Melendez were also given a Senior Day recognition, narrated by Ignacio assistant coach Cody Haga.
“The Aztec coaching staff basically got a hold of us earlier in the week – Wednesday, Thursday … I can’t remember – and they were like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a couple seniors that didn’t get to get honored’ whenever they had their last home meet,” Ignacio boys’ head coach Jordan Larsen said. “I think they’d tried to work it out with Piedra Vista on Friday, but for whatever reason it didn’t pan out. So they contacted us and … it was an easy call to make for the area; if any team would have asked we’d have said the same thing. It was awesome; we’re glad we could do it.”
Munoz won the 155-pound division by recording four pins – one requiring only nine seconds – in as many matches. Melendez did not compete.
