Albuquerque— The Los Lunas wrestling team followed up a victory at the Bernalillo Duels last week with another strong showing at the Joe Vivian Classic at Manzano High School. The Tigers finished second, narrowly edged out by Volcano Vista for first place. The Hawks put up 192.5 points, while the Tigers sat at 187 in the final standings.
Belen also had a strong showing, finishing in 11th place with a score of 92. The Eagles were sitting in the top ten for a large portion of the contest but were unable to hold that position.
Valencia was also in attendance, finishing tied for 28th with Albuquerque High with a score of 20 points.
Jonathan Gurule of Los Lunas was the only Valencia County wrestler to claim first place in their weight class, taking the first place match with a 5-1 decision over Isaiah Marquez of Cobre in 113. The junior has a 17-1 record so far this year.
Gurule reached the final with wins over Daniel Sisneros of West Mesa via the fall, Joshua Sadler of Atrisco Heritage Academy with a 12-1 decision, and finally Moses Santiago of Volcano Vista, who he defeated with a narrow 5-4 decision.
Also in the 113 pound weight class, Belen wrestler Diego Avila finished in fifth place.
Avila won his first match via fall over Brendan Bryant of Onate and then went on to defeat Julian Juarez of Farmington via a 5-2 decision in the second round before falling to Adan Benavidez of Bloomfield in the third round via a 9-5 decision.
Bumped to the consolation bracket, he defeated Robertson’s Isaac Probst with a 7-0 decision and Dallas Dunn of Carlsbad 11-4 before falling to Santiago to drop into the fifth place match, where he defeated Sadler with a fall to claim fifth place.
In the 120 pound weight class, Valencia wrestler Clay Carrete was the top finisher out of the county in fifth place.
Carrete started the tournament with a loss to Matthew Sanchez of St. Pius with a 13-6 decision. Pushed to the consolation bracket, he defeated Isaiah Martinez with a 12-5 decision and then Angelo Garcia of Volcano Vista with a 11-0 major decision.
Robertson’s Caleb Medina was the next opponent for Carrete and he defeated him with a 10-4 decision.
A 6-5 decision over Dylan Justus of Manzano guaranteed him a spot in the top six, and a defeat to Avery Atma of Las Cruces put him in the fifth place match, which he won with a 9-2 decision over Matthais DeHerrera of Bloomfield. Julian Sisneros of Belen was the only other county wrestler in the weight class, and he went 0-2.
In the 126 pound weight class, Dylan Fredirickson of Los Lunas finished in sixth, defeating Aaron Moya of St. Pius via fall, Mario Tafoya of La Cueva via a 1-0 decision and Izaiah Cunningham of Robertson on a 6-1 decision.
Then, he fell to eventual first place finisher Abran Lujan of Valley and Taeoma Frank of Farmington in consecutive matches to land in the fifth place match, where he lost to Eric Fernandez of Los Cruces via a 4-3 decision.
Santiago Tafoya of Belen was the next best finisher in the division, winning three matches in the consolation bracket before falling to eventual third place finisher Frank.
At 132 pounds BHS’ Dylan Gonzales came out on the wrong end of a narrow decision and finished second in the class.
He reached the final with two fall wins over Noah Jones of Eldorado and Estevan Montoya of Centennial, a forfeit from his first round opponent and a 3-1 decision over Izaac Sandoval of Valley.
He met Santiago Lopez of Atrisco Heritage Academy in the final and fell by 10-8 decision.
Gonzales had won the weight class at last week’s Conflict at Cleveland, but was unable to defend that title.
Naithan Gurule of LLHS was the next best finisher in the weight class, falling in his first round match before winning one match in the consolation bracket before being knocked out on technical fall.
In the 145 weight class, a fifth place finish from Belen’s Martin Ammons led the way within the county. Ammons won his first three matches, including a 13-3 major decision win over LLHS’ Niko Torres, before he fell to David Graves of Las Cruces and was pushed into the consolation bracket.
In the consolation bracket, he fell to Johnny Herrera of Volcano Vista before rebounding to beat Andrew Trujillo of Robertson in a 3-2 decision to claim fifth.
At 152, Miguel Andrade of Los Lunas was the top performer, finishing in fifth with a fall victory over Ryan Baca of Las Cruces.
Colteon Gonzalez of Belen won one match in the consolation bracket via a fall as the next best performer in the weight class.
At 160, Matthew Gurule of Los Lunas came in sixth place, but had to forfeit his last two matches following a hard fought match with Caden Jojola of Valley.
Tino Rodriguez from BHS was the only other county wrestler in the class and went 0-2.
In the 170 class, Ezequiel Seniceros and Andrew Alfero of VHS and LLHS, respectively, were the only two competitors from the county and both went 0-2.
Santiago Salas of LLHS in the 195 weight class came in second place, advancing to the championship thanks to three fall victories over Clark Hager of Albuquerque Academy, Las Cruces’ Mario Navarette and Jared Duenez of Carlsbad.
In the final, he met Diego Pavia of Volcano Vista who won on a technical fall.
Zachary Doyle led the way at 220 pounds. The Los Lunas heavyweight took third in the classification, winning his first match over Sammy Lopez from Highland High School before falling to second place finisher Julian Sanchez of Capital.
Doyle stormed his way through the consolation bracket, winning three matches, all by falls, to advance to the third place match where he defeated Joey Burke of Eldorado with a 5-2 decision.
Walter Baca came in second place in the 285 weight class, winning three straight matches with falls before he was defeated by Ernest Martinez of Atrisco Heritage in the first place match.
Los Lunas hosted Grants on Wednesday, while Belen and Valencia squared off at VHS. This weekend, LLHS heads to El Paso for the Bowie Invitational, while Belen is at the Aztec Invite.
Valencia, meanwhile, will travel north to Las Vegas for the Cardinal Classic hosted by Robertson High School.
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April 25, 2024
