Yuma High School’s wrestlers got the new year off to a good start in Bennett, last Saturday.
The girls and boys teams had the rare opportunity of having tournaments in the same location.
“Boys and girls both being there created a lot of energy,” coach Rory Lynch said.
The boys competed in the 40th annual Rumble in the Jungle Bennett Invitational, while the girls were in the third annual Bennett Tigers Women’s Invitational.
The wrestlers are back in action today, January 9, with a dual at Akron. However, Akron has only a handful of wrestlers, so there will be a limited number of matches.
Yuma’s boys then will make the long trip to Lamar for a tournament on Saturday, while the girls will go to Greeley for the Northridge Women’s Wrestling tournament.
Lynch said both tournaments should provide strong competition for the Yuma grapplers
The Yuma girls finished second out of 20 teams in the third annual Bennett Women’s Invitational with 96 points, behind only Skyview with 104. Mountain Vista was third with 88 points, Bennett fourth with 68 and Thornton fifth with 67
“The girls got to bring home a big trophy,” Lynch said. “They were very excited.”
Five placers paced the Yuma girls.
Mia Dischner won the 185-pound title. She received a bye into the semifinals, where she pinned Thornton’s Daysia DeHerrera at the 4 minutes, 46 seconds mark. She then took on Amy Sistek of Chapparal in the final, getting an even quicker pin in 1:25 for first place.
Fatima Duran took second at 111/118. She won her quarterfinal with a first-period pin (1:09), then pinned Stratton’s Kaitlyn Louthan in 29 seconds in the semifinals. She ran into Calhan’s Josephine Redman in the championship match, getting pinned in 2:41.
Maci Daugherty picked up two wins while placing fourth at 100.
Ashley Marshall went 2-2 while placing fourth at 105.
Eva Ruiz went 2-2 while placing fourth at 161. Ximena Garcia won two matches to place sixth at 111/118. Abril Montes de Oca wrestled at 127.
Yuma’s boys finished fifth in their 23-school field with 168.5 points. Chapparal won the team title with 203 points, while Skyview had 202.5, Bennett 184 and Mountain Vista 175.
The Indians had nine placers, led by two second-place finishes.
Alec Holtorf made it to the championship match at 120. The senior won his first match by technical fall (17-2), then won a 6-1 decision over Bennett’s John Jordan in the quarterfinals. He had a challenging match in the semifinals, pulling out a 4-2 decision over Skyview’s Michael Mangrum. He ran into another Skyview wrestler, Nadim Kargar, in the championship match, losing by major decision 9-1.
Braden Smith took third at 126, reaching the semifinals before suffering a loss. He recovered to win by fall (3:51) over Pueblo Central’s Timothy Roy, finishing the day 3-1.
Joey Ross also went 3-1 while placing third at 145. He won his first two matches by all, then suffered a tough loss in overtime in the semifinals. However, he came back to get a pin at the 1:35 mark over Lakewood’s Milo Massie for third place.
John Smith went 4-1, including two pins, while placing fifth at 113. Jesus Sanchez went 3-2 while placing fifth at 138. Yahir Trejo got two pins while going 4-1 and placing fifth at 152. Jose Ruiz went 3-2 to place fifth at 220. Lars Sims went 3-2, with all three wins by fall, to finish fifth at 285. Josh Daugherty got a pair of wins at 132, and Tyler Allen wrestled at 160.
“It was a great day for us,” Lynch said. “It was a good level of competition.”
Last Saturday’s tournaments came at the end of the Christmas break before school was back in session. Lynch noted there was good participation in the two-a-day practices leading up to last weekend.
“We averaged over 20 kids at practices over the break,” he said. “We came into (Saturday) in good shape, and some of the other teams weren’t in as good of shape.”
