Montezuma County athletes delivered standout performances across multiple sports this past weekend.
Montezuma-Cortez wrestling highlighted the Rocky Mountain Invitational in Pagosa Springs with Rusty Snyder earning a runner-up finish at 138 pounds, while Dolores added several top-eight placers and Mancos claimed a win at 132. Dove Creek battled a deep field in Utah’s Tournament of Champions, led by Keaton Banks’ second-place finish at 106.
Girls wrestling saw Montezuma-Cortez secure third as four athletes posted wins.
On the hardwood, Dolores boys opened league play with a key victory, while Dove Creek and M-CHS girls picked up momentum heading into conference action.
M-CHS, Dolores post top-tier finishes in Rocky Mountain Invite
After hosting a quad dual earlier in the week, head coach Ryan Daves and the Panthers boys wrestling team posted strong results at the Rocky Mountain Invitational in Pagosa Springs on Saturday.
Senior Rusty Snyder led the way with a runner-up finish in the 138-pound division, joined by Nicholas Martinez’s third-place effort at 106. Teagun Samora took fourth at 120, while Bodie Stiegelmeyer finished sixth at 113, Orion Martineau earned seventh in the 157 class, and Cash Rogers took eighth at 144.
Dolores added plenty of top-eight finishers to the Montezuma County representation, led by River Wickstrom taking third at 157; Adam Hicks (126) and Kenji Edwards (132) each taking fourth; JJ Robson (106) and Nate Hill (144) both finishing fifth; and Daniel Jacket finishing seventh at 215 to help pace the Bears to 99.5 points and a ninth-place team finish.
M-CHS took 12th as a group with 84.5 points, while Mancos finished 18th on the strength of a win from Tegan Mestas at 132.
On Wednesday inside The Jungle, Dolores added a trio of dual wins over Grand County, Monticello and the host Panthers. Bears winners included Robson, Jacket, Edwards, Hill, Hicks, Tanner Trammel, Bodie Fischer, Kale Gates, Taylor Carignon and Zaiden Suhr.
M-CHS added wins from Darius Madison, Jordan Bia and Zebulun LeBlanc to go along with victories from Stiegelmeyer, Snyder and Samora.
In Vernal, Utah, Dove Creek faced a sizable field in the Tournament of Champions, and Keaton Banks surfaced with a runner-up finish at 106 to pace the Bulldogs to a 28th-place performance.
M-CHS looks forward to a tournament in Page, Arizona, on Jan. 17, while Dove Creek heads to North Fork and Dolores prepares for the Clash at the Coliseum in Farmington.
At the Rocky Mountain Invitational, Tinley Philpott (130), Madisyn Schuster (125), CeJae Snyder (115) and Annalisa Abeyta (110) all won matches to aid a third-place team finish.
The Panthers return to the mat in northern Arizona at the Sand Devil Classic on Saturday.
Saturday: Dolores 54, Ridgway 43; Ignacio 51, Dove Creek 20
The Bears (6-3, 1-0 SJBL) posted a statement win to open their league schedule by knocking off defending champion Ridgway on the road. The Bulldogs (1-7, 0-0 SJBL) dropped their final nonconference game before their matchup with Mancos on Tuesday at The Dawg House.
Saturday: Dove Creek 48, Ignacio 19; Ridgway 53, Dolores 43; M-CHS 54, Rehoboth Christian 34
The Bulldogs (5-3, 0-0 SJBL) took care of former SJBL foe Ignacio to prepare for their league season, which gets underway this week. M-CHS evened its record at 3-3 with a road win against the Lynx, while Dolores (3-6, 0-1 SJBL) fell in its league opener against Ridgway.
