MEEKER | A pin is the ultimate goal in a wrestling match and last Thursday when the Cowboys wrestled 12 matches against a visiting Buena Vista Demons team, 11 of the matches were determined by pin fall and Meeker lost the dual 36-39.
“We wrestled hard but we got pinned too much,” said Meeker head coach J.C. Watt.
The Cowboys did record five pins in the dual against the Demons before both teams wrestled in the Delta Panther Invitational the next day, while Meeker’s JV wrestlers competed in Rifle.
Tannen Kennedy (145), Parker Pontine (152), Colby Clatterbaugh (170), James Amick (182 and Ridge Williams (195), all pinned their Buena Vista opponents.
Kennedy was the only Cowboy to wrestle in the championship match in Delta, which he won by major decision (8-0) against Conrad Demann of Rifle.
Freshman Ty Goedert (106) and Clatterbaugh both finished fourth in their respective brackets, while senior Zach McCann (126) and sophomore Dax Sheridan (160) both finished fifth. Meeker senior Brayden Woodward (170), who wrestled in the same bracket as Clatterbaugh and junior Kesston Hobbs (182) both pinned two opponents in the tournament and both finished in sixth place.
Charles Curry (126), Cooper Main (152), and Amick all won one match in the tournament, while Carter Strate (132) and Williams did not.
Cedaredge won the Delta tournament and Meeker finished ninth.
Pontine and Jeremy Woodward finished second in the Rifle JV tournament, while Tucker Ercanbrack placed third, as did Tyson Portwood and Kaleb Nielsen finished fifth.
The Cowboys will wrestle a dual in Cedaredge starting at 6 p.m. today against the No. 2 ranked Bruins, then compete in the 40th annual Warrior Classic, starting Friday at Grand Junction Central High School.
This year’s Warrior Classic will feature 40 teams from Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona, led by last year’s team champion, the defending 5A state champion Grand Junction Tigers.
“We wrestle a hard schedule,” coach Watt said of the competition his team faces early in the season, in preparation of the regional and state tournaments at the end. “We have a lot of kids on the verge of becoming good, they just are not there yet. Hopefully it happens, they don’t know how good they are yet, they just keep working harder, continuing to improve.”
By BOBBY GUTIERREZ | Special to the Herald Times
Warrior Classic has a team from South Carolina this year too.