BMS wrestlers open season in Gypsum

MEEKER I One week after the Meeker High School wrestlers ended their season competing in the Colorado State Wrestling Championships, the Barone Middle School Cowboys were opening theirs in Gypsum, wrestling more than 50 matches. The young Cowboys, which featured 13 seventh- and eighth-graders, finished third as a team in a field of 13 teams.
“We were happy with how they performed,” head coach Lee Overton said. “Some of the seventh-graders really surprised me and did well. I was also surprised we placed so high for the first time wrestling in Gypsum.”
When the BMS team travels to Steamboat Springs on Saturday, they will, for the first time, be joined by several sixth-graders.
“I like having sixth-graders on the team,” Overton said. “They go to school and hang out with the seventh- and eighth-graders, so I think they should get to wrestle with them. There are more than 20 weights to fill in middle school and it is good to have more kids in the wrestling room. This way we can help more kids, with more than wrestling. I believe the more time they spend in the wrestling room the better off they will be.”
Meeker advanced four wrestlers into the championship match and BMS eighth-grader Jacob Pelloni (90) was the only champion. Seventh-graders Kale Burke (85), Tannen Kennedy (105) and Luis Villalpando (110) all finished second in their respective weights.
Eighth-grader Garrett Frantz wrestled six matches and only lost one, to finish as a consolation champion in the 95-pound bracket. Frantz’s classmate Logan Hughes also won a consolation championship at 150.
Eighth-grader Eli Hanks (145) and seventh-graders James Amick (115) and Miguel Lopez (heavyweight) all finished fourth in their respective brackets.
Seventh-grader Pake Burke (110) and eighth-graders Daylon Nielsen (120) and Christopher Strate (125) each won two matches but did not place, neither did seventh-grader Jared Henderson at 140.
The young Cowboys will wrestle in Steamboat Springs on Saturday and then host a triangular with Rangely and South Routt County (Soroco), Tuesday, Mar. 11 at 5 p.m., at Meeker High School.