The regular season is now over for the Montezuma-Cortez High School varsity wrestling team.

Now they have got to focus on the all-important Class 4A Region III Tournament which will be held this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9-10, at Grand Junction High School. The Panthers will be joined by Battle Mountain, Broomfield, Delta, Moffat County, Montrose, Palisade, Rifle, Summit, and Steamboat Springs.

"This was a great dual to watch," MCHS head coach Mike Allison said. "We wrestled hard all evening and it came down to that we had to pin in the heavyweight match to win it and we did. We won the matches we needed to win and that should help us towards seedings."

The Panthers are coming off a thrilling win over Montrose on Friday night, Feb. 2, but a big loss to Grand Junction High on Saturday morning, Feb. 3, in the Southwestern League dual action in Ron Wright Memorial Gym.

MCHS trailing 33-38 going into the last match on Friday night. MCHS heavyweight Elias Lehi took on former Dolores County heavyweight Bill Ransom who had transfered during last summer. The match was deadlock at 0-0 after the first period. They each picked up a point, Lehi on an escape and Ransom on a penalty. Then in the final period, Ransom took Lehi down but Lehi quickly made a reversal and then pinned him in 5:16 which gave the Panthers the 39-38 win.

Lyle Benally got things going with a 7-4 decision over Montrose’ Aaron Eddens. Panther Tyler Gray, 119, pinned Cameron Roberts in 3 minutes, 03 seconds. Cade Fox, 125, picked up a win from a forfeit for a 15-6 advantage.

The Panthers then had problems in the middle weights and trailed 38-15. But Cole Allison, 171, had no problems pinning Montrose’ Matt West in 1:19. Then 189 Ryan Gray and 215 Michael LeCompte both won by forfeits which set the stage for the final match.

All did not go well against Grand Junction High early the following morning.

On a bright spot, Richard Yake, 103, won by forfeit. Gray won a 9-5 decision over Matt Martinez.

In that contest, the two were scoreless through the early moments of the first period until Gray made a nice take down but Martinez made a reversal. He then worked Martinez’ with his legs and picked up two more points with a near fall at the buzzer. Neither wrestler could gain much of an advantage during the early seconds of the second period. But then Gray went to work. He took Martinez down and scored on a near fall and by the end of the quarter Gray held a commanding 9-2 lead. Following a blood time early in the third, Gray scored four more points for an 11-2 lead. Martinez scored off a reversal but that was it for the final 11-4 count.

The Panthers trailed 9-41 going into the 171 bout. Allison, who is ranked no. 1 at that weight, took on GJ’s Lessing Alamanderez. Allison quickly took him down with 1:18 showing in the first period. Allison caught him in a cradle and nearly pinned him for a 5-0 lead with 45 seconds left in the first. He nearly pinned him again at the buzzer for an 8-0 lead. Allison, starting on top, got the best of Alamanderez and pinned him in 2:55.

"Grand Junction is well coached and they are great tacticians. They do everything right. They have the numbers and we don’t. We did not wrestle as well today as we did the night before," Allison said after the match.