The Los Lunas High School wrestling team won the district tournament on Saturday at St. Pius X with a team score of 235.
Belen finished in second place at the meet with a score of 192, while Valencia came in fourth place with a score of 85.
Grants took third place and the final automatic qualifying spot for next weeks state tournament.
The Tigers completed a dominant district stretch with their tournament championship. LLHS went undefeated in duals this year, and were seldom challenged.
Despite LLHS claiming the team title, it was the Belen wrestlers who had the better day individually, winning six district crowns.
Josiah Pemble won the title in the 106 pound weight class, beating LLHS’ Isaiah Baca by a 4-3 decision.
Santi Tafoya claimed the win in the 126 class with another 4-3 decision. Dylan Gonzales claimed the title at 132 with a 4-2 decision over Nathan Gurule of Los Lunas.
At the 138 pound class, Damien Wood won a 5-0 decision over LLHS’ Niko Torres.
Martin Ammons also claimed a title in the 145 point weight class with an 8-4 decision over Dominic Baca.
Alfredo Castillo was the Eagles final district champion with a fall win over Zander Doyle.
Los Lunas, however, had a top three finisher in each weight class and qualified all 14 wrestlers for this weekend’s festivities at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho.
The worst finish for the Tigers came in the 120 pound class where Gayvn Fredrickson finished in third place.
The Tigers claimed district titles in five different weight classes, 113, 152, 160, 195 and 285.
Jonathan and Matthew Gurule won titles at the 113 and 160 pound classes, respectively.
Miguel Andrade was victorious in the 152 pound class with a 1-0 decision over Coleton Gonzalez of Belen.
Santiago Salas won via a fall in 195, and Walter Baca claimed the title at 285.
Valencia’s best finish came courtesy of Clay Carrete at 120 pounds, who finished in second place.
Carrete fell to Matthew Sanchez in the championship match in a sudden victory.
The Jaguars had top three finishes in all but three of the weight classes, missing out at 195 pounds, 220 and 285.
The nine Valencia wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament are Julio Garcia, Jacob Farley, Carrete, Conner Cano, Manuel Estrada, Daniel De la cruz, Pedro Garcia, Tristen Chavez and Zak Aragon.
Belen qualified 13 wrestlers, only missing out in the 285 weight class.
The Eagles qualifiers include all of their district champions as well as Diego Avila, Dominic Romero, Dominic Baca, Gonzalez, Tino Rodriguez, Anthony Rodriguez, Wyatt Wimberly and Austin Johnson.
Los Lunas’ qualifiers who didn’t claim district titles are are Isaiah Baca, Gurule, Torres, Dominic Baca, Doyle, Andrew Alfero, Gayvn Fredrickson, Dylan Fredirickson
The state tournament is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday with doors opening an hour before.
The first session will include the first round matches from 4 and 5A as well as quarterfinals for the girls and Class 3A.
Session two of the opening day will include the first two consolation rounds and the championship quarterfinals for 4 and 5A and is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and run until 6 p.m.
The action will resume at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.
with the championship semis for all four divisions.
Championship matches are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. after the third and fifth place matches conclude.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors and members of the military. A day pass, which allows re-entry to the venue, is $15.
The box office is cash only, but tickets may be purchased online at gofan.co/app/school/nmaa.
Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Josiah Pemble of Belen as Jacob. This error has been corrected.
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April 25, 2024
