Former Bayfield Wolverine Jordan Larsen must have appreciated the irony when his Ignacio Bobcats held off BHS 33-27 in the Silver Bracket's third-place dual at last Saturday's 2015 Piedra Vista High SchoolPanther Classic in Farmington.
The head-to-head win ultimately landed IHS and its first-year head coach in seventh place out of 16 squads filling the PVHSfieldhouse for the day-long, dual-format spectacle. Earlier during Pool C round-robin action, Ignacio beat 5A Grants, 48-30, but lost 48-33 to 4A Kirtland Central.
Taking first in the Silver Bracket, and fifth overall was 5A Farmington, via a 42-33 defeat of 5A Gallup Miyamura after wins over 2A Dolores, 5A Los Alamos and Bayfield (a 39-32 affair), and a loss to Gold Bracket and overall Classic champions Rio Rancho (N.M.) Cleveland.
En route to taking eighth overall, Bayfield dominated 5A Gallup 51-12 and also edged 5A Piedra Vista's "Silver" roster 31-30 in Pool B before taking a 63-12 licking from Bloomfield.
Ignacio also picked up a 41-35 win over CHS' "Silver" set, according to information phoned in Monday by Storm Coach Corey Anderson, allowing the 'Cats to place second-like Bayfield-in their round-robin session with a 2-1 record and set up a Silver Bracket semifinal (Bayfield-Farmington was the other) test against Miyamura.
PANTHER CLASSIC FINAL STANDINGS: 1.Rio Rancho, N.M., Cleveland; 2.Farmington, N.M., Piedra Vista; 3.Bloomfield, N.M.; 4.Kirtland, N.M., Central; 5.Farmington, N.M.; 6.Gallup, N.M., Miyamura; 7.IGNACIO; 8.BAYFIELD; 9.Cleveland "Silver"; 10.Los Alamos, N.M.; 11.PV "Silver"; 12.Mancos; 13.Grants, N.M.; 14.Dolores; 15.Gallup, N.M.; 16.Montezuma Creek, UT, Whitehorse. (Note: The Gold Bracket order starts with first place overall, the Silver at fifth, the Bronze at ninth and the fourth-tier Copper Bracket at 13th.)
Pool B Results: 1.Bloomfield, 2.BAYFIELD, 3.PV "Silver," 4.Gallup. Pool C Results: 1.Kirtland Central, 2.IGNACIO, 3.Cleveland "Silver," 4.Grants.
The wrestlers start 2016 on the road, with the Wolverines travelling to Dolores on Jan. 5 for a dual, and both teams heading to the Pagosa Springs tourney on Jan. 9.
