Yuma High School’s boys wrestling team will wrap up the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule Saturday when they compete in the Wray Bob Smith Invitational.
It will be the Indians’ first action since taking a reduced squad to the Limon Badgers Invitational, last Saturday.
Yuma took only six wrestlers to the Limon event, but still managed to score 51 points, finishing 13th in the 25-school field. Crowley County won the team title with 131 points, while University was second with 109, Lamar third with 107, Limon fourth with 98.5, and Sterling rounded out the top five with 91.5, barely edging sixth-place Wray.
Adrian Carranza won three matches while placing fourth at 120 pounds. He opened tourney action with a win by fall (5 minutes, 48 seconds) over Aaron Musgrave of County Line, then got a one-minute pin of Center’s Francisco Villa in the quarterfinals. He was pinned by Merino’s Coen Schmidt in the semifinals. Carranza bounced back to win by fall (4:30) over Musgrave again before losing by fall in the third-place match to Alex Martinez of Trinidad.
Trey Stegman picked up two wins at 145, earning a 5-3 decision over Daniel Warentine of Peyton, and an 8-6 decision over Center’s Lorenzo Trujillo, to reach the semifinals. However, he lost a 6-2 decision to Sterling’s Jesus Ochoa in the semifinals, then lost an 8-6 decision in the consolation bracket.
Zeke Martinez worked his way through the consolation bracket to place fourth at 170. He on by fall (2:54) Giovanni De Santiago of University, but then lost to teammate Kallen Blach in the quarterfinals by fall (3:34). He then won three straight matches in the consolation bracket to reach the third-place match, where he had to forfeit due to reaching the five-match limit.
Blach started off with a good run at 170, winning by fall (1:53) over Limon’s Kailer Schmidt, then getting the win by fall over teammate Martinez, to each the semifinals. However, he lost by fall to Lyons’ Wyatt Bashor, then dropped a 10-6 decision in the consolation bracket.
Peyton Wells picked up two wins in the consolation bracket at 220, getting a 20-second pin of Akron’s Ryan Dennis and a pin at the 2:03 mark over Wiggins’ Stephen Linton, but then bowed out with a medical forfeit.
Hugo Montes earned one win at 132, getting a win by fall (1:26) over University’s Alejadro Rodriguez in the consolation bracket.
