One move, resulting in one point, can be the difference between becoming a historic state champion or not, and Durango High School girls wrestling junior Lillian Fenberg knows that now more than ever.
Lillian and her twin sister, Aleia, have led the Demons girls wrestling program to new heights this season. Lillian showed she could compete with the best in the state by getting to the 5A final at 135 pounds in the 2026 CHSAA State Wrestling Tournament in Ball Arena in Denver, but her stellar season ended with a 1-0 loss in the state final on Saturday.
Although it was tough for Lillian to come so close to becoming Durango girls wrestling’s first state champion, it was a great weekend for the Demons’ boys and girls wrestling programs. Five of the six wrestlers who competed for Durango placed. The Durango girls finished 15th as a team, and the boys finished 18th as a team.
“It was phenomenal,” Durango girls wrestling head coach Ryan McGrath said. “Being a new head coach … the state tournament is a different beast. It's bigger, it is more formal, and there's a lot more pomp and circumstance surrounding it. Working with the team … keeping them centered on the wrestling was a new challenge, but we also had a lot of fun. We saw a lot of really good wrestling.”
The girls finished 15th out of 52 teams represented in 5A with 47 points. Grand Junction Central won with 149.5 points, followed by Pomona in second with 124 and Chatfield in third with 111.
Lillian, seeded seventh in the opening round on Thursday, pinned her first opponent before she won 6-0 over No. 2 seed Violet Gray from Grand Junction Central. On Friday, Lillian pinned Lauren Scott in the semifinals to make it to the final on Saturday.
Saturday wasn’t an easy experience for Lillian because she had a lot of waiting around to do after she weighed in in the morning. She saw her teammates, Aleia and Marie Baker, wrestling all day Saturday, but she kept busy with multiple workouts throughout the day and focusing on her diet leading up to the final, according to McGrath.
Once it was time for Lillian to wrestle in the final, she was facing defending state champion Makena Heston from Columbine. Heston won at 130 last year, and the two finalists had already faced off this season at the Chatfield Lady War Horse Invitational, where Heston pinned Lillian.
Whereas the first match-up was high scoring, neither wrestler was giving anything up in the final. Heston scored first, but McGrath said in the second period, he should’ve instructed Lillian to start on the bottom, because she’s good from that position and would’ve likely scored down there to tie the match up. That didn’t happen, and Lillian came up a point short after time expired. Lillian finished her junior season with 45 wins and eight losses.
McGrath said he could do a better job preparing Lillian to be ready for such a defensive, conservative wrestler.
“Lillian was not even upset, but frustrated and disappointed,” McGrath said. “But at the same time, she's already looking ahead, asking, ‘What can I do better?’ … She did an amazing amount of work to prepare for that and to get to where she was. I have every expectation she'll be right back there next year.”
The next best Durango girls wrestler was also a Fenberg, with Aleia finishing fifth at 130. Aleia pinned her first opponent before she lost to Grand Junction Central’s Shyann Page, 9-5, in the quarterfinals on Thursday. McGrath said Aleia created a lot of good opportunities for herself, but missed the opportunity to score on them. He believes if those two wrestled 10 times, each girl would win five times.
That loss put Aleia in the consolation bracket, where she pinned her first opponent before winning her next match 11-3. In the consolation semifinals on Saturday, Aleia was pinned by Sand Creek’s Karris Carter. Once again, she bounced back to win the fifth-place match via pin over Grace Sierra from Mead High School.
Junior Marie Baker was the other Demon girls wrestler who went to state, placing sixth at 120. She won her first match, 1-0, before she was pinned in the quarterfinals by Pine Creek’s Zoe Gabel. Baker went into the consolation bracket, where she pinned her first opponent before she was pinned in the consolation semifinals. Baker then lost to Gabel again in the fifth-place match.
“Marie did awesome,” McGrath said. “In the whole state tournament, the brackets at 115, 120 and 125 were just full of the top athletes … it was a great learning experience. Marie had some very tough matches … I was super impressed with Marie, especially coming off her shoulder injury.”
McGrath described Baker’s shoulder as fragile, but more stable and stronger than it had been even, though she had to wrestle through some pain.
The Demons should have an even better next year with no seniors on the squad this year. Next year, the Fenberg twins, Baker and Keelyn Reynolds will be seniors. Sydney McAllister will be a junior after a great sophomore season, and Timber Zink, Haidyn Albrecht and Lucy Larsen will be sophomores with a year of experience in high school wrestling.
“It’s super exciting,” McGrath said. “Part of this year was the athletes and I building a relationship, building a system, a style of wrestling, coaching and working. We all had to do that as we prepared for the next tournament and ultimately for the regional and state tournaments. To some extent next year, we don’t have to build some of that … They already know what the expectations look like.”
On the boys’ side, Durango finished 18th out 48 teams represented in 4A with 38 points. Pueblo East won with 158.5, with Roosevelt in second with 141 and Air Academy in third with 134.5.
“I’m really excited for them,” Durango boys wrestling head coach Jason Silva said. “Two out of three placed … I was expecting a lot more of a development year, and the kids did well, so I'm pleased with the outing. We only took three boys, we almost took eight, but with the three boys we brought, they made the most of it.”
Leading the way was sophomore Ryder Martyn, finishing third at 138. The second seed in the bracket, Martyn pinned his first opponent and then beat Air Academy’s Trent Lainez, 8-2, in the quarterfinals.
That win set up the semifinals match with Sand Creek’s Rayce Schriever on Friday Silva credited Sand Creek for game planning for Martyn’s athleticism by tying him up and slowing him down as much as possible. It worked as Schriever advanced to the final with a 9-5 win.
Martyn didn’t pout or wasn’t discouraged, even with a bruise on his face. He won his first consolation bracket match, 9-1, before pinning Dominic Lippis from Canon City in the third-place match. Martyn finished his sophomore season 51-10.
“He wrestled a good match … we were one take down away and fell short (against Schriever),” Silva said. “With Ryder, he … didn't skip a beat like he lost … Of course, he's frustrated and upset. He wanted to be in the finals, but he knew he still had work to do on Saturday, and he dominated. He looked great the rest of the weekend.”
The other Demon male wrestler to place was senior Jacob Belt, finishing fourth at 175. It was a tough start for Belt, losing 19-2 in the first round to Ivan Gallegos, sending Belt right to the consolation bracket with a lot of work to do.
It would’ve been easy for Belt to roll over after a disappointing start, especially since he had been putting a lot of pressure on himself over the last few weeks, causing him to not wrestle up to his ability, Silva said. Belt was motivated to place at state for his older brothers, Ben and Riley, who both made it to state, but didn’t place.
“I said, ‘It’s time to put on your work pants and all you're going to be doing is eating, sleeping and wrestling,’ and that's what we did … they (Belt’s parents) understood, it's a wrestling family that I’ve known forever,” Silva said. “But talk to them after the tournament when you get your medal. It was just a good reset for him to take that pressure off himself. Man, he wrestled well the rest of the weekend.”
Belt pinned his first consolation bracket opponent, then beat Jayce England from Montrose, 8-5, after losing to him in the regular season. Belt beat Braeden Sandoval from Pueblo Central, 4-2, to advance to the consolation semifinals on Saturday.
Waiting there was Gallegos. Belt flipped the script. Despite being behind in the match, Belt pulled out a really good throw he has in his toolbox that Gallegos wasn’t ready for, resulting in a pin for Belt. That turnaround win put Belt in the third-place match against Jacob Snodgrass from Palisade.
The magical run came to an end with Snodgrass pinning Belt after he tried the throw on Snodgrass too early, with Belt ending up on his back. It’s the first time in Silva’s 20+ year coaching career that he can remember a wrestler he’s coached at state losing in the first round and advancing all the way through the consolation bracket to place in the top four. Silva said Belt’s perseverance will be an example for kids going forward.
Senior Asher Thiessen didn’t place at 144 for the Demons. He pinned his first opponent, but lost to eventual state champion Ty Eversman from Thompson Valley in the quarterfinals. Thiessen was then pinned in his first consolation bracket match.
The Durango boys will lose two important seniors in Belt and Thiessen, but will return Martyn, who will be vying for the state crown, along with some promising younger wrestlers, Cash Silva and Wesley Megordan, who barely missed state.
“I'm cautiously optimistic and super excited,” Silva said. “A lot of things can happen between now and then, but I think we have a really strong core of kids that have a work ethic and understand what it's going to take to get to that next level … I told everyone to take two weeks off. Don't even think about wrestling for the next couple of weeks, and then we'll start getting back to work.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
