Dolores may not have something of a comeback wrestler-of-the-year award. But were one existed, count Darren Hicks as the favorite to earn it.
Despite not yet being truly up to speed in this winter’s early goings, the sophomore 144-pounder looked in fine enough form Wednesday night to first pin Monticello, Utah’s Ronnie Harris in DHS’ first dual of a home triangular, then did likewise to Ignacio’s Dillon Brann in the squad’s second.
Hicks’ stick of Harris ended up being the Bears’ only head-to-head win in a 47-24 loss to the talented Buckaroos, while his pin of Brann increased the Bears’ first lead on the San Juan Basin League rival Bobcats to 18-11, en route to a 30-28 victory – a definite positive for DHS, what with a journey to Manti, Utah, for the Templar Holiday Classic on Friday rapidly approaching.
“Ignacio’s a great team,” Dolores head coach Casen Eldredge said. “Awesome kids … coached by a great coach, and it’s an honor to battle against them. And being from Monticello [Eldredge graduated from MHS in 2004], it’s always a pride thing; they have a great program established there …. Both have state-ranked wrestlers, and we battled super tough; I didn’t see any of our guys give up – I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Kenji Edwards’ second-period pin of IHS’ Norman Hackett at 138 pounds had given Dolores a 12-11 advantage, after IHS’ Aven Bourriague started the dual winning by forfeit at 120 and teammate Josh Kerrigan more or less offset Cameron Bell’s loss by pin at 126 (he’d started the night listed at 132) with a technical-fall defeat of Mason Hill at 132.
Following Hicks’ triumph, 150-pounder Nathan Hill received a forfeit increasing the Bears’ lead to 24-11 before Bobcat Zane Pontine defeated River Wickstrom by technical fall at 157. Lincoln deKay then followed up his earlier tech of MHS’ Tavon Black (a bout contested at Black’s 175 pounds) with a pin of DHS’ Kale Bates at 165 pounds to bring the ’Cats back to 24-22, and Kendrick Nossaman then claimed forfeit points at 175 – putting Ignacio up 28-24.
With neither side represented at 106, 113, 190, nor heavyweight, Dolores 215-pounder Daniel Jacket’s forfeit win ultimately made the difference.
Narrowly defeated, 31-22, by MHS in the night’s opener, Ignacio had deKay, Bourriague, Pontine and Kerrigan each go 2-0 (entered at 126, Kerrigan notched a first-period pin of Buckaroo Miles Coleman and was then bumped up a weight to meet Mason Hill). Nossaman could have went 2-0, but accepted a match against MHS 190-pounder Tyson Wheeler and lost in the third period via technical fall (Robison and heavyweight Camren Carpenter then each won by forfeit to deny IHS the dual).
“We wrestled well, but want to wrestle better,” said Ignacio head coach Jordan Larsen. “Little things to work on, back in the (practice) room. Josh had a good night, was starting to open up on offense a little bit.”
The Bobcats will next compete on Saturday at Walsenburg’s Pete & Ina Gomez Invitational.
“Looking forward to it,” Larsen said. “They always have competition at all levels … and it’ll give (the Bobcats) a chance to see some tougher kids from the other side of the state. (WHS senior Giovanni) Aldretti at 157’s is super tough – we want a match with him – and I’m not sure who’s at 65s … probably somebody tough. Same with Bourriague; I think there’s a kid from Swink (Trinidad State-bound senior Thomas Valdez) that’s super-tough …. We’re just looking forward to getting those matchups so that we can work on things for the ‘big show’ in about a month and a half.”
