RANGELY I This weekend the Panther wrestling team finished up their regular season with a home duel on Thursday and a duel tournament in meeker Saturday. Thursday night the Panthers hosted the Coalridge Titans. Prior to the matches a parent appreciation was shown.
“I would like to thank all of the parents once again for all of the support they give and allowing their kids to be a part of such an amazing sport,” commented head coach JC Chumacero.
The Panthers had a close dual and ended up coming away with a win in front of their home crowd.
On Saturday the Panthers were in a pool with four other teams, facing off against Grand Valley, Soroco, Meeker varsity, and Olathe.
“We started off the day with what felt to me, slow and sluggish,” said Chumacero. “We lost the dual but I believe it would have/should have been much more competitive had we wrestled to our full potential”.
The Panthers rebounded, beating Soroco but then had a very difficult matchup against Meeker. “We lost the dual against Meeker, but I was very impressed with how we wrestled against a top ranked team,” commented Chumacero.
The Panthers finished their pool defeating Olathe, and in the placing dual and the final dual they faced off against Coalridge once again. It was another close one but the Panthers fell short by one match.
On the weekend Aydan Christian went 4-2, Kobey Chism 4-2, Braxton Moore 3-1, Zane Varner 4-1, Alex Black 3-2, and Kasen LeBleu 1-4. Landon Carlson, Colton Stevens, Izaiah Moody, Brent Cantrell, and Joseph Adams came up short this weekend “but all wrestled close competitive matches” , said Chumacero. Byron Mackay did not wrestle this weekend as no teams had a heavyweight. Next weekend the Panthers will wrestle in Buena Vista at the regional tournament where the young men will try to place in the top four to qualify for the big show the following weekend at Ball Arena in Denver.
Special to the Herald Times
