MEEKER | The Cowboy wrestlers were at home this weekend for the annual Meeker Duals. This year Meeker fielded two teams; Meeker 1 took first place, and Meeker 2, surrendering six forfeits each dual, finished in ninth place.
“The Duals are a great opportunity for a final ‘tune up’ before regionals,” commented assistant coach Stryker Lane. “The Cowboys looked sharp with Meeker 1 scoring no fewer than 50 points in each dual.”
After a bye in round one, Meeker 1 defeated Soroco 66-6 in round two. Round three’s match with Olathe yielded the exact same score. In round four Meeker 1 once again scored 66 points, but in this dual Coal Ridge scored 12 points. In round five Meeker defeated Basalt 72-6 pinning every opponent in each contested bout, and finishing first in pool A.
The Cowboys of Meeker 1 would then wrestle Hayden, the pool B champion, for the team championship. Meeker defeated Hayden by a score of 51-22 on the strength of pins from Abe Maupin, Connor Blunt, Trevor Keys, Judd Harvey, Tanner Musser, Dillon Hobbs, Clay Crawford, and Trae Kennedy. Brenden Clatterbaugh won a 7-5 decision over his fifth ranked opponent.
“The Cowboys of Meeker 2 put on a gutsy performance,” said Lane. “Unfortunately, they just did not have enough wrestlers to be competitive.”
Noah Leblanc finished the day undefeated, Hayden Shults and Jake Blazon only lost one match apiece. Holton Harvey’s only loss on the day was to the top ranked 3A wrestler from Delta. They were able to defeat Soroco in the ninth place match.
“Each of the wrestlers learned a lot this weekend, for some of them it was their last time competing this season, for others it was their last time competing at Meeker High School,” commented Lane.
The seniors were this week’s top performers Kennedy, Maupin, Blunt and Musser finished the day with a combined record of 18-0 in contested bouts with 18 pins and less than half an hour of total mat time.
“We will miss seeing these men step on the mat in front of the home crowd, but we are excited to see how they finish their careers over the next two weeks,” said Lane.
The regular season has come to an end.
“It was an excellent season for the Cowboys and they are ready for regionals next weekend, Feb. 10-11 at Hayden High School,” commented Lane.
“Meeker has a good shot at winning the regional tournament as a team this year, but Mancos, Hayden, and North Fork will provide strong competition,” said Lane. “They are well coached teams and will be ready to wrestle hard”.
Meeker currently has a wrestler in 13 of the 14 weight classes.
“At each of those weights we have a realistic chance of qualifying,” commented Lane. “It may be over optimistic to say they will qualify 13, but it is not impossible.”
Meeker is not currently ranked at 106, 113, 120, 138 or 175. In their region 138 is the only weight class that has four ranked wrestlers in it. That makes it possible for any of the Cowboy wrestlers at those weight classes to place in the top four and earn their trip to state. Meeker currently has the highest ranked wrestler in the region at five weight classes and the second highest at three others. According to Tim Yount with On the Mat Rankings Maupin at 144 pounds, Blunt (157), Clatterbaugh (190), Harvey (215) and Musser (285) are the top ranked wrestlers in the region, and Crawford (126), Kennedy (132), and Cade Blunt (165) are second from the top.
“It will be an exciting tournament, and the Cowboys will come out of it in a great position to make a run at the state title,” said Lane.
Fun Facts and Stats:
1. Trae Kennedy joined the 100 wins club with his win over Moffat County on Tuesday.
2. Meeker added 44 pins to their varsity pins count this weekend, bringing their regular season total to 250.
3. Meeker wrestled 539 varsity matches this season, and won 362 of them for a winning percentage of 67.
4. The seniors combined record this season was 115-28 for a winning percentage of 80.
By TIFFANY JEHOREK – Special to the Herald Times
