For the second straight year Montezuma-Cortez High School has come out on top in winning the team championship of the seventh annual Wells Fargo Banks Wrestling Tournament at Monument Valley High School in Kayenta, Ariz.

The Panthers dominated the two-day tournament with 843 points. Kirtland-Central (Kirtland, N.M.) came in a distant second with 793, followed by Bloomfield, N.M. with 739, Gallup, N.M. 675, and Aztec JVs 670 rounding out the top five. Monticello, Utah placed sixth with 658 followed by Shiprock, N.M. 628, Window Rock, Ariz. 625, Piedra Vista (Farmington) 598, host Monument Valley 495, Chinle, Ariz. 491, Ganado, Ariz. 375, Red Mesa, Ariz. 387, Dolores County High School 362, Greyhills, Ariz. 328, Pinon, Ariz. 271, Kanab, Utah 232, Whitehorse, Utah 174, and Monument Valley, Utah 28.

"What I like about this tournament is that you are wrestling a bunch of different people," MCHS head coach Mike Allison commented. "At one point or another we wrestled against 19 teams. We got in a lot of matches, some of our guys wrestling 10 matches. It is well run and they do a very, very good job."

Each wrestler was placed in one of two pools and got at least nine matches in their pool. The top four in each pool wrestled the corresponding place winner from the other pool in the finals. There was a total of 232 wrestlers wrestling on eight mats for a total of 1,021 bouts.

Panther senior Cole Allison, 171-pounder, was named the Outstanding Wrestler (Upper Weights). Allison won all 10 of his matches to capture first place. Andy Butler of Monticello, was named Outstanding Wrestler (Lower Weights).

Richard Yake placed fourth (8-2 record) at 103, Lyle Benally placed fourth (8-2) at 119, Tyler Gray second (9-1) at 125, Jared Carver third (9-1) at 140, Nick Martinez second (8-2) at 145, P.J. James placed fourth (8-2) at 152, Dan O’Neal second (9-1) at 160, Ryan Gray sixth (7-3) 189, and Michael LaCompt seventh (8-2) at 215.

Also at the tournament was Dolores County. The Bulldogs had several placers on the day. Matt Beanland took sixth at 103, Kyle Riddell came in second at 112, Casey Spitzer finished in sixth at 119, Randy Curtis came in fifth at 130, and first-year grappler Vern Hassell came in sixth at 135.

The Panthers pinned, and they pinned, and they pinned on Thursday, Dec. 7, against Bayfield.

The Panthers literally pinned the Wolverines to the mat in this high school dual. Montezuma-Cortez won its second dual of the season with a 51-25 victory over the Class 3A Wolverines.

Yake wrestled Kyle Shrinner and pinned him in 35 seconds. Bayfield’s Dan Edwards pinned Ryan Maestas (112) in 2:34. Benally took on Brain Scholtz with Benally winning 10-3. Gray battled Matt Marchase at 125 and Gray took him down and buried him in 37 seconds. BHS’s Tim Carothers won a 12-7 decision over Cade Fox at 130. Zach Van Abbema (135) pinned Panther frosh Dallas Reed in 1:02. Carver had no troubling pinning Clint Wilson (140) in 1:52 after several near falls. Martinez wrestled a smart matching in pinning Brian Wright (145) in 1:10. James win by pin over John Williams (152) in 3:53. BHS’s Ethan Morrison (160) won with a 17-5 decision over Dan O’Neal, who caught an elbow to the nose. Allison clobbered Kevin Black with a pin in 52 seconds. Gray, who has replaced Brad Phillips right now, got Dan Black in a bar and a half and took Black to his back in 3:56. LeCompt used a power half and put Matt Vandenberg (215) to his back in 2:37. Heavyweight Jake Parker was awarded a win by forfeit over an injured (shoulder) Elias Lehi.

Meanwhile, Mancos finished in third place at the Cedaredge Tournament over the weekend. Hayden won with 181 points while Gunnison came in second at 160, followed by MHS at 152.

"It was a good tournament for us. If we had a couple more wrestlers who were gone and another couple out (injuries) we would have won it going away," MHS head coach Travis Bryant remarked. "We did an excellent job as a team."

Blue Jay Brandon Baumgardner, competing as an independent, placed fourth at 103. Vince Bazile came in first place in that division. Anthony Maestas placed second at 112, and Daniel Wilson third at 125. Scott Koppenhafer won at 135, beating 2000’s 125-pound state champ Anton Frederickson of Hayden. Mike Montoya won at 140. Kelly Mitchell came in second at 145 as did Jakob Tallent at 152, and Philip Wilson at 171. Jeff Roland placed fourth at 189.

"That’s not bad. We placed 10 wrestlers out of 14 places. I thought we made a very good showing," Bryant added.

Dolores traveled to Sargent for a tournament there. The Bears finished fourth out of 10 teams. Host Sargent won while Custer County was second, Sanford third, and DHS next.

"We had six out nine wrestlers place," DHS head coach Bill Kralicek reported. "We wrestled well."

Dolores’ Ray Breland came in second place at 152 after losing a 4-11 decision to Y. Stanley of Sanford. Colter Dunagun also came in second (189) after being pinned in 44 seconds by a Custer County wrestler. Casey Garvin (171) came in fourth after he was pinned in 1:44 by a Sanford grappler. Tyler Hicks (215) decisioned A. Garcia of Alamosa 8-0 for third. Derek Thompson (heavyweight) won a 10-0 decision over defending 2A state champ Mike Duran of Sanford.

"That was clearly the best match of the day. It was too bad that a lot of people had already left. But we really wrestled well," he added.