BAYFIELD
Ryan Nava got the Wolverines off to a rocking start.
The rest of the Bayfield High School wrestling team just failed to pick up the spark in a 65-6 dual meet loss to Monte Vista on Thursday night.
Nava pinned Monte Vista’s Dalton Quintana with 1 minute, 26 seconds remaining in the opening 120-pound match after trailing 2-0 at the start of the second period.
“I have great conditioning,” said Nava, son of Ramona Nava and Allec Rodriguez. “I could tell he was tired, and I knew if I could just push that he’d break. And he did.”
Nava was coming off a successful sixth-place run at the Moon Valley Tournament over the break in Moon Valley, Ariz.
“Honestly I don’t think he wrestled as well (Thursday night) as he did (in Arizona), I thought he was a little hesitant in the first period,” BHS head coach Todd McMenimen said. “That’s not to say he didn’t wrestle well. I want to see him get more aggressive on his feet.”
That win gave BHS a 6-0 lead, but Monte Vista proceeded to win the next six matches, five by way of pin.
“Sometimes you worry about them still staying on the bus after such a long trip,” Monte Vista head coach Greg Jones said.
The Pirates benefitted from five Wolverine forfeits in addition to the five pins.
Cody Cowan pinned the Wolverines Clay Crawford with 1:18 remaining in the third period at 126 pounds.
Taylor Winch escaped a pin near the end of the first period at 132 pounds against the Pirates Daniel Barondo, but Barondo finished the job with 36 seconds left in the second period.
Gavin Burke pinned the Wolverines Cash Snooks with 46 seconds remaining in the first period at 138 pounds.
Jacob Vance pinned the Wolverines Gus Roberts with 50 seconds left in the first period at 145 pounds.
Jose Duran took a technical fall victory 16-1 over the Wolverines Cody Speece at 113 pounds to end the dual.
“We have got to learn to have some fight when we’re on the bottom,” McMenimen said. “Once we were underneath, our heads went to the mat, and we kind of stopped wrestling.”
BHS also had to compete without one of its top wrestlers, Colter McMenimen, who will miss the next two weeks because of injury.
Normally, the coach’s son and last year’s BHS state qualifier would have wrestled in the 138-pound slot. Instead, Snooks filled McMenimen’s shoes.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
