BAYFIELD – Building confidence on the mat is as important as practicing takedowns.
The Bayfield High School wrestling team managed to do just that in a 60-22 dual meet loss to Pagosa Springs on Thursday in Bayfield.
The Wolverines forfeited eight weight classes and actually outscored the Pirates 22-12 without counting eight forfeits.
Clay Crawford pinned the Pirates’ Dylan Lindberg with 46 seconds remaining in the first period of the 126-pound bout.
“I was snapping his head and moving around a little bit, and I saw an opening,” said Crawford, son of Mitch Crawford. “I got him on his back and pretty much just sat there. He didn’t try to fight very hard.”
Michael Mills pinned the Wolverines’ Taylor Winch with 1 minute, 24 seconds left in the third period of their match at 132 pounds in the next weight class.
“We’re still working through some confidence issues with Taylor,” BHS head coach Todd McMenimen said. “We just need to get him to relax and start wrestling for himself. Right now there’s a lot of outside pressure on him, and I think he needs to just relax.”
Colter McMenimen returned to the mat with a 17-1 technical fall victory 17 seconds into the second period of his 138-pound match against Liam O’Brien.
McMenimen hadn’t wrestled since Christmas because of an injury.
“It’s definitely nice (to get back on the mat); I was missing it,” said McMenimen, son of Todd and Missy McMenimen. “There’s no replacement for the conditioning; I was a little worried about that. It was a little sloppy at times, but not being on the mat you lose your technique a little bit.”
Tyler Cowan took down the Wolverines’ Gus Roberts with 11 seconds remaining in the first period at 145 pounds before the forfeit parade started. BHS left every weight class from 152 to 285 pounds, plus the 106-pound division, open.
Cody Speece got the Wolverines back on the board by pinning Tanner Schlom at 113 pounds with 28 seconds left in the first period, then Ryan Nava closed out the match with a 16-1 technical fall victory over Ethan Hunt at 120 pounds just as the buzzer sounded.
“I thought we wrestled real well, about as good as I could ask us to do,” coach McMenimen said.
There won’t be any time for the Wolverines to focus on anything else except wrestling, however. BHS boarded the bus immediately after Thursday’s match to drive to Page, Ariz., for the Sand Devil Classic on Friday and Saturday.
“Mathematically we’re not going to win a dual (against a big team like Pagosa Springs),” Crawford said. “But to get as many wins as we can is a pretty good thing to get momentum going on to the weekend.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
