Dove Creek crowned five league wrestling champions en route to the 2A San Juan Basin League title last Friday.
Nick Jones (106 pounds), Cole Baughman (120), Dalton Randolph (138), Chance Johnson (182) and Tyson Smith (heavyweight) won their respective weight classes.
The Bulldogs won the team title with 36 points. Norwood placed second with 25 points and Dolores finished third with 23 points.
Second place finishers for Dove Creek include, Chance Randolph, 113; Tyler Ebberts, 132; Dillon Daves, 145; and, Wyatt Applin, 160.
Its kind of a bittersweet deal. We had a couple kids wrestle real great. We just had three or four kids that didnt have their best matches, Dove Creek coach Shane Baughman said. I just felt like a couple matches, we didnt have our best night. On the flip side, some of our kids wrestled the best they have all year. We had kind of hot and cold performances on the night. But they wrestled well enough to win the league championship, so Im proud of them for that. Hopefully, it will spark them for regionals, maybe wake them up a little bit.
Levi Noyes pinned Chance Randolph in the first round to win the league championship for Dolores at 113 pounds. He plans to go back up to 120 at regionals.
It was good to see Levi beat Chance from Dove Creek in the finals, Bears coach Dean Valdez said. He wrestled really hard and didnt show any fear, and pinned him.
Second place wrestlers for Dolores were Deano Valdez, 120; Griffin Williams, 170; Ethan Upton, 145; and, Richard Belt, 220.
It was kind of a mediocre performance by us. I had a bunch of kids sick. We were a little off, Dean Valdez said. Wyatt Wade (126) hurt his shoulder wrestling Alex Pena (of Ignacio). Hopefully, its not too bad. It was a tight match, until then. He didnt finish the match.
Deano Valdez will drop down to 113 at regionals.
Regionals for Dove Creek and Dolores are at Grand Junction Central High School on Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. and 10 a.m.
