RANGELY I Four Rangely High School Panthers wrestled in a dual against Hotchkiss on Friday before competing in the Delta tournament on Saturday. The Panthers were shut out by the Hotchkiss Bulldogs but wrestled better in Delta.
Rangely will not wrestle again until January.
“We were a little over-confident at Hotchkiss and we didn’t have a very good showing,” head coach Jeff Heinle said. “Hotchkiss has a solid team this year, and, if they keep wrestling like they did this weekend, they will be a team to worry about at regionals.”
Rangely senior Heath Peters was the only Panther to place in Delta, finishing fifth in the 138-pound bracket.
“We showed some improvement in Delta,” coach Heinle said.
Kiki Ruiz (152) won a match in Delta but lost two. Nych DeLeon (145) and Josh Bolding (170) each lost two matches and were eliminated.
“We wrestled better than our records show,” coach Heinle said. “We wrestled well on our feet and on top. We knew we would be having to defend the cradle, but the problem was we didn’t do a very good job staying out of it and that was a big reason for our losses.
“The season is early and there is a lot of work to do before regionals come around in February,” he said.
Because of a new point system, the Panthers had to drop a tournament to stay under the allowed points for the season, and will not wrestle again until the Tournament of Champions in Vernal, Utah, on Jan. 9-10.
