RHS wrestlers win 2 of 5

RANGELY I With only seven of 14 weights filled, the Rangely Panther wrestling team still won two dual meets last Saturday in Grand Junction at the Colorado Mesa University duals.
“When we started wrestling for the day, me and the rest of our coaches were really impressed,” Rangely’s new head coach Jeff Heinle said. “We looked pretty solid for a small team, going 2-3 for the day with only seven wrestlers.”
The Panthers defeated Ignacio 42-36, then lost to Olathe 24-36 before beating Cedaredge 34-30 in their third dual of the day. The Panthers then lost to Meeker 10-57 and got beat by Grand Junction Central 6-78.
“All of the wrestlers were looking good, pinning all of their opponents in the first dual but by the end of the day, the wheels fell off for the most part. It seemed that we either pinned or got pinned.”
Heinle said only three matches went the full six minutes, with Ethan Allred winning 15-5 against Cedaredge, Lucas Heinle lost 2-3 to J.C. Henderson and Colton Coombs beat Meeker’s T.J. Shelton 13-5.
Coombs was the only senior to wrestle for the Panthers (JoD Stults was injured) and he was the only Rangely wrestler to go undefeated, winning all five of his matches at 160. Caleb Lawson won four and lost one at 152, Heinle and Allred were both 3-2 at 145 and 170 respectively. Heath Peters (113) and Jesse Odom (138) both went 2-3 on the day, Ryan Barlow won one at 132 and Josh Bolding wrestled a JV match at 160 but lost.
“Josh looked really impressive for his first match ever,” coach Heinle said. “All of our freshmen came away with their first varsity win.”
The Panthers will travel to Oak Creek for a bracketed tournament this Saturday.
“If we as coaches can get the team to focus for a full day of competition we should be unstoppable,” coach Heinle said. “We may not win a lot of duals but we will win matches!”