Bayfield’s James Mars couldn’t help but join folks scanning lists of past IHS Invitational champions — an event dating to around Christmas 1975, and now known as the Butch Melton Memorial Invitational — while awaiting action Saturday morning.

Unlike casual glances, however, Mars was focused on finding something specific:

The years in which father — and current BHS assistant coach — Dusty Mars had been victorious at the meet, which believed to be the oldest continuous meet of its type in the Four Corners region.

“This morning, right after we weighed in, we were walking and I saw that name on the wall,” James Mars said with a grin. “But I didn’t want to think too far ahead.”

Still, the seed had been sown and was destined to sprout.

Having pinned Montezuma-Cortez 138-pounder Airoughn VanGrandt on Senior Night in BHS Gymnasium less than 24 hours earlier, Mars picked up where he left off and indeed made some Wolverine wrestling program history.

Back at his regular 132 pounds, Mars followed up a first-round “bye” with a 16-1 technical-fall victory over Montrose’s Austin Zimmer. Mars then scored a second-period pin of Centauri’s Parker Buhr, a second-period stick of Aztec, New Mexico’s Zach Sanders and an 17-8 major decision over Pagosa Springs’ Griffin Bower in the first-place match to join his proud papa in tournament lore. Dusty Mars placed first twice, at 100 pounds in 1995 and at 103 in 1996.

“That’s pretty awesome,” James said, donning his father’s letterman’s jacket. “That’s pretty special … that we’ve both won the same tournament, 26 years apart. Feels pretty cool. I’d lost in the finals my freshman year, so it’s a nice full-circle moment.”

“I’d like to get that spladle back, and on Granbys — those roll-throughs when I’m on bottom — I always give up points,” James said. “So if I take those two away, I think it’s a pretty perfect match; I’ll try to eliminate those mistakes. Griffin’s a pretty solid kid, it was my third match against him … and eight points is a lot to give up in any match.”

All told, James Mars’ triumph would be the three La Plata County County teams’ only individual championship, helping Bayfield tally 72 points and finish an LPC-best fifth overall. Durango (60 points) would come in seventh, and the event-hosting Bobcats (22 points) finished ninth out of 14 schools represented.

Led by 170-pound king Ivan Smith — voted the meet’s Outstanding Upper Weight Wrestler — Farmington won the boys’ team title with 194 points. Aztec scored second with 168 points. Colorado’s Cedaredge (135) earned third, and Montrose (106) took home fourth.

BHS sophomore Keaton Pickering placed second at 113 pounds, going 3-2 and losing a rematch with Aztec’s Bryson Valdez in the finals. Valdez’s 10-1 major would help him leave Ignacio as the Outstanding Lower Weight Wrestler.

Wolverine junior Deegan Barnes went 4-1 at 152 and finished third. Senior Kobe Prior (3-2 at 170) and sophomore Jordan Cundiff (1-3 at heavyweight) each placed fourth, as did Mitzlaff (1-3 at 126).

Freshman 106-pounder Hunter Mars, James Mars’ cousin, finished the day 2-2 but saved seventh place with a 13-0 shutout against Durango’s Dillon Harris. Sophomore Donovan Candelaria also snagged a seventh-place result for Bayfield, going 1-4 at 160 and defeating IHS junior John Riepel 7-4 in the final round.

“We all were pretty gassed at the end of every match, so that’s something we’ll continue to work for going into regionals,” Barnes said. “But overall I think … we wrestled really well. Our young guys are improving very quickly … so I think we have help coming the next two weeks.”

Pit against Prior in the final round, Durango senior Ben Belt executed a takedown against the Bayfield senior in overtime to secure a 3-1 sudden-victory win. The win came after a 3-1 regulation-time loss to Cedaredge’s Ty Walck, but capped off a 4-1 day at 170 to earn Belt a team-high third place.

He wasn’t alone. Freshman Ryan Dugan went 3-1 and placed third at 106, and senior Jacob Fenberg earned DHS another third by going 3-1 at 113.

Sophomore Riley Belt (4-1 at 138 pounds) and junior Junior Garcia-Rodriguez (3-2 at 182) each placed fourth at their respective weights, and freshman Cole Pontine captured fifth at 120 with a 3-2 showing.

Injured late in the long day, junior 195-pounder Miguel Stubbs had to default to Shiprock, New Mexico’s Cudia Tihe with fifth place at stake.

Somehow able to wriggle out of several predicaments in which defeat seemed imminent, Ignacio junior Keaton McCoy lost just once en route to placing second at 145 pounds. Posting a 3-1 meet record, McCoy ended his day pinning FHS’ Daxton Allison 1:36 into the second period, after being pinned by Dove Creek’s Tyson Beanland.

“It’s our only home tournament, so I wanted to try to do the best I can; that’s about it,” McCoy said. “I was just taking it step by step, making sure I could slow my matches down.”

Caught up in the vicious 170-pound division, IHS senior Tyler Barnes’ last Melton began with a 5-1 loss to Ben Belt and ended beneath a pin applied by Montrose’s Isaiah Alcazar 1:54 into the second period. Finishing 2-3 (including a loss to Walck) on the day, Barnes ended up placing sixth thanks to pinning both Nucla’s Arthur Connelly and PSHS’ Chris Rafferty.

“Super-good competition,” Barnes said, “and I’m glad I was able to be in for that aspect, even though I didn’t finish as high as I’d have wanted. Met up with some great kids, great talent, and I bet if we did the same bracket another day it would be a completely different turnout.”

“It means a lot, being our only home tournament,” Barnes said. “Kind of sucks that this year we didn’t have fans able to come support us – and we missed out on our Senior Night – but other than that … it was a great tournament to be in.”

Sophomore 106-pounder Cayle McCoy placed 12th after going 0-4. Riepel ended up 1-4 at 160, placing eighth after losing his second clash with Candelaria. Riepel won the first by pin in 49 seconds.

“Some of those kids have been off the mat at least a week – it’s been a couple weeks since anyone’s competed – and we’ve got to work on a little bit of shape, we’ve got to work on a little bit of technique,” said IHS head coach Jordan Larsen. “But at the end of the day, given the toughness of that, then having some placers and kids figuring some things out, I’m happy.”

“Very happy to be doing this; it’s a long-standing tradition I’m happy to be a part of,” Larsen added. “I think Butch Melton would be stoked.”

Part of the attraction to this year’s invitational was the inclusion of a seven-division girls tournament, a Melton first. And wrestling well above her own weight, Bayfield junior Grace “Gracie” Patton ended the day winning the 185-pound division’s first-place medal.

“Knowing that, I really feel honored to have wrestled here tonight,” Patton said. “Because I wrestled underweight … it was definitely a lot harder to wrestle girls that were heavier. I’m pretty sore, but other than that I feel great. I’m really glad I came!”

Ignacio junior Faye Hackett finished second in the 118/127 division behind Aztec junior Makayla Munoz – a two-time New Mexico Activities Association state champion who was named the Melton’s Outstanding Girl’s Wrestler. Senior Lexy Young took fourth at 136 behind winner Ebony Smith, a Farmington sophomore.

“This tournament has been very difficult,” Hackett said. “In Alamosa and those other ones, I’d been paired with girls from our region; being able to wrestle New Mexico girls was an awesome experience. These girls were pretty tough, but I had fun … really enjoyed it.”

“I feel like me, Faye, the whole team … it’s just our mental focus and toughness that we really need to work on – not defeat ourselves before we enter onto the mat,” Young said. “And having more girls come out, wrestling girls from different states, from 3A, 4A schools, it’s very different. Like, you get a feel for regionals.”

“It was very emotional too, in that it’s my last year,” she continued. “I wish I could have done this, like, my freshman and sophomore years; I really love this sport. If I could tell my past self to do wrestling, I’d do that.”

“The boys and girls have continued to work hard, and I hope that they can … the next two weeks,” Larsen said. “Truthfully, if we can make it to regionals with a full team of seven boys (including senior heavyweight Jeremy Roderick, who missed the Melton because of COVID-quarantine rules) and three girls (freshman Danylle Herrera was out due to injury), that’s going to feel like a victory in and of itself. Anything else is icing on the cake.”