For the second year in a row, the battle for the Alumni Cup came down to the final match.
Durango head wrestling coach Leo Garand came up with the idea for the cup last year as a tangible prize for the winner of the dual between rivals Durango and Montezuma-Cortez.
“Leo started that last year as something for us to fight for and it’s pretty cool,” said M-CHS head coach Shad Bellmire. “We fought them tough and it went down to the wire and we got to keep it. We painted it orange. Whoever takes it kind of does whatever they want with it. It was red and black, but we weren’t going to keep that here.”
Last year’s dual in Durango came down to the heavyweight match, with M-CHS’ Victor Perez coming up with a win in the final match to secure a 39-36 dual victory and bring the cup to Cortez.
And on Tuesday in Cortez, the two squads battled back and forth until the last match once again.
Durango’s Devon Pound put the visiting Demons out in front early with a pin of Quade Oliver in the opener, and the two teams alternated wins for the next four matches.
Matthew Broughton got a 14-4 major decision win for the Panthers, Jordan Belt pinned Ethan Root to extend Durango’s lead, Josh Ramos pulled M-CHS within two with a pin of Austin Counts, and then Kaleb McMunn pinned M-CHS’ Briggs Durbin.
After a win by fall over Swayde Noyes for Durango’s Nick Vasquez and a forfeit win for M-CHS sophomore Kerwin Tom, the Demons found themselves leading 24-16 with just two matches remaining.
Luckily for the Panthers, they had two of their top grapplers ready to close things out.
At 106 pounds, Shawn Higgins won by fall over Paul Smogacz to cut Durango’s lead to 24-22 heading into the final match of the evening between M-CHS sophomore Stevie Fuentes and Durango sophomore Alix Garrett.
Fuentes started last year’s dual for the Alumni Cup with a win for the Panthers.
And on Tuesday, he finished things.
The 113-pounder handled Garrett for a 10-1 major decision win worth four team points to give M-CHS a come-from-behind 26-24 victory to keep the Alumni Cup in Cortez.
Bellmire was happy with his team’s performance, although he said of few of his wrestlers looked a bit out of shape. However, he said they’ll work on their conditioning, and that it was good to be challenged by a talented Durango group to continue getting his team prepared for their long-term goals.
“They had some good wrestlers,” he said. “Durango had some good wrestlers, but we’re up for any challenges coming up. Bring the challenges, because we’re looking at regionals and getting to state. So, we’ll step up to them, and the better the kids, bring ‘em. We need everything we can right now.”