Regionals for local wrestling is here, and the Ignacio Bobcats have some athletes who have the potential to make deep runs going into state.
Bobcats wrestling coach Jordan Larsen and his squad are traveling to Cedaredge High School to wrestle on Friday and Saturday, getting an idea which wrestlers can advance to the state tournament.
Every wrestler on Ignacio’s roster will have the chance to compete at regionals, but only the top four wrestlers in each of the 14 weight classes will advance to state. Since there are four regions in each class, there will be 16 wrestlers for each of the 14 weight classes fighting for state titles in their respective divisions.
Three Bobcats with the most promising chance at a deep state tournament run are 106-pounder Aven Bourriague (31-4 this season), 144-pounder Zane Pontine (30-9) and 150-pounder Lincoln deKay (34-1).
Larsen also said to watch out for Kendrick Nossaman at 165 pounds. He’s 23-14 on the season and showing off his best wrestling during this late stretch of the season after working through some injuries over the past few seasons, according to Larsen.
Another wrestler who’s having a strong campaign is 285-pounder Kyle Rima, who is 25-7 on the season.
“Among our squad, if we wrestle well and God willing, we peaked at the right time of year, which is of course right now, I'm really hoping to push if on a great year we might get five or so to the state tournament,” Larsen said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the kids with good records wrestle, you know, Aven and Lincoln and Zane. Those guys all have 30 wins and definitely have a good shot at their weight classes.”
At 106 pounds, 144 pounds and 150 pounds there are four to six ranked opponents in the region for Bourriague, Pontine and deKay to face, according to Larsen.
Larsen also said he’s excited for his wrestlers with losing records to compete and wrestle hard as there’s recent history of wrestlers with losing records making runs into the state tournament.
“I'm really just looking forward to seeing the boys compete and if everybody goes out there and wrestles well and wrestled hard, I’ll be happy with that,” Larsen said.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
