The 2025 CHSAA State Wrestling Championships took place over the weekend in Denver and two local wrestlers came so close, but in the end so far away, from achieving a lifelong dream.
Durango’s Ryan Dugan and Ignacio’s Lincoln deKay finished second in their respective weight classes to end a superb season for both of them.
Dugan, a senior wrestling at 126 pounds in 4A, was the top seed in that bracket. He beat Brendan Campbell from Palmer Ridge in the first round 11-5. In the quarterfinal, Dugan won 17-1 over Talon Flowers from Falcon. Dugan made his way through the semifinals by beating John Paul Salazar from Mountain View 7-2.
That set up a final against a familiar opponent in Julian Espinoza from Pueblo East. Dugan pinned Espinosa in the final of the 4A Region 1 Regional. Espinoza got the best of Dugan in the state final and won 1-0. Dugan finished his senior season 38-5.
“There's one person out of every bracket that is that is happy at the end of the day,” Durango boys wrestling head coach Jason Silva said. “Espinosa did a good job of game planning and getting prepared for Ryan; the final outcome ended out with him being on top and winning 1-0. We prepared ourselves, we had a game plan and we had one takedown that was really close that got waved off toward the end of the third period that would have put us up and we would have won. But the kid fought out of that position well, the ref called it the right way and we fell short ultimately.”
Silva said the biggest difference between the regional match and the state match between Espinoza and Dugan was Espinoza didn’t shoot and get himself into a position where he could get in trouble. Dugan is really good at scoring off other people’s takedown attempts, according to Silva, and Espinoza put pressure on Dugan to create the offense by being conservative.
deKay wrestled at 165 pounds in 2A. The junior won 14-3 in the first round over Carlos Nunez from Limon High School and then won 16-1 in the quarterfinal over Peyton Armstrong from North Fork.
In the semifinal, deKay beat state champion Grant Statz from Sedgwick County/Fleming. deKay was down 10-2 in the match but battled back to win 15-12 in overtime.
Then in the final, deKay lost to Tripp DuVall from Holly 11-2 and Ignacio’s top wrestler finished his season 44-6.
“It’s tough but he wrestled extremely well,” Ignacio wrestling head coach Jordan Larsen said about deKay. “Hats off to Tripp DuVall, that guy is a hell of a wrestler. He's the real deal and he’d be the real deal in any division in Colorado, 2A through 5A. Lincoln wrestled a heck of a tournament and I’m super proud of him. He is only a junior so he’s got one more year to try and get it done.”
The Durango boys finished 15th in 4A out of 47 teams with 45 points. Pueblo East won with 192.5 points and Roosevelt was second with 131 points.
“I was extremely excited and pleased with the performance of the kids,” Silva said. “To have a top 15 finish is a big steppingstone to where we want to be as a program. Being that first third surprised anybody that was at the tournament. Getting placed in the top 15 with bringing six kids was pretty good for us. So we hit that threshold, and now we want to get in the top 10 next year and improve moving forward.”
Silva said the 15th place finish is the highest finishing position the program has had in the last eight years he’s been involved.
Durango freshman Ryder Martyn finished fifth at 132 pounds. He lost his opening match to Christian May from Littleton, 14-12, but Martyn bounced back to win his first three matches in the consolation bracket. He then was pinned by Travis Long from Roosevelt in the consolation semifinal. Martyn bounced back again and won 10-6 in the fifth-place match over Diego Sirio from Mountain View.
Senior Cole Pontine also finished fifth for the Demons. The 157-pound Demon won his first two matches before he lost to Justus Freeman from Pueblo East 1-0 in the semifinal. Wyatt Boley from Cheyenne Mountain then beat Pontine in the consolation semifinal 5-1 before Pontine bounced back in the fifth-place match to beat Joseph Castro from Pueblo Central 3-1.
Wyatt Bartel ended his Durango wrestling career by going 2-2 at 150 pounds.
“This whole group of seniors we've had has helped change the image of our program,” Silva said. “That's Ryan, that's Cole, that's Braxton (Waddell that's Wyatt Bartel. They've definitely changed the trajectory of our program in a positive way.”
The Demons will return three of their six state wrestlers next season.
On the girls’ side, Durango sent Marie Baker and Aleia Fenberg but neither of them placed. Baker went 2-2 while Fenberg went 0-2. The Demons finished tied-39th out of 46 5A schools with five points. The Durango girls should have a strong group of returners next season.
Ignacio’s boys finished 27th out of 57 2A schools with 24.5 points. Cedaredge took the team title with 141.5 points. Zane Pontine went 1-2 at 157 pounds after battling some sickness. Pontine lost to the eventual state champion Charlie Miller from North Folk in the quarterfinal.
The other placer for the Ignacio program was on the girls’ side with Larissa Espinosa finishing fifth at 190 pounds in 4A. Espinosa won her first match but was pinned in the quarterfinal by the eventual state champion Mackenzee Steinbar from Wiggins School District. Espinosa then won her first two consolation bracket matches before she was pinned by Laykyn Baxstrom from Pagosa Springs in the consolation semifinal. Espinosa then pinned Dahlila Tijerina from Fort Lupton for fifth place.
Espinosa became Ignacio’s first ever two-time state placer on the girls’ side.
Every Ignacio wrestler who competed at state is a junior. The Bobcats also lost former state wrestlers like sophomore Lainee Bradley and junior Aven Bourriague to injury earlier in the season. Ignacio is poised to rise up the standings next season.
The Bayfield boys wrestling team sent five wrestlers to compete in 3A at state but Hunter Mars was the only one to place; he finished fourth at 113 pounds.
Mars won his first match but was pinned in the quarterfinal by Benjamin Gomez from Wellington. Mars won his three consolation bracket matches before he lost in the third-place match 6-2 to Antonio Herrera from Mullen.
The Bayfield girls didn’t have any placers at state. Hannah Taylor went 0-2 and Bailey Blouin went 1-2.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
