Española Valley senior Dylan Dominguez had a grin on his face Feb. 21 as he talked about winning the second state wrestling title of his high school career.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Dominguez said. “Right now, I’m still just a sweaty person.”
Dominguez had won the Class A-AAA 103-pound-title in 2006 as a freshman at Peñasco. Consecutive second-place finishes followed in 2007 and 2008. He transferred to Española, a larger Class AAAA school, last summer with the goal of becoming a better wrestler and winning another state championship. Española has an established program that has won four consecutive district championships.
Dominguez won this year’s title match against Valencia’s Carlos Montaño at 3:47 of the second period in the 112-pound championship match.
After taking a 2-0 lead with a take down, Dominguez wrestled cautiously until the opportunity to go for a pin presented itself. He turned Montaño over and held him down until the referee tapped the mat to signal a pin. He called the move a “three-quarter stack.”
“Once I got the take down, I didn’t want to make a mistake and give him points,” Dominguez said.
Winning his second state championship felt different than his first.
“The first one I started with tears of joy,” Dominguez said. “Now, I’m more mature and just really happy. This is what I’ve worked hard for.”
Dominguez was Española’s only state champion. The Sundevils had entered the tournament with 13 qualifiers and high hopes for their first team trophy at the state tournament in Rio Rancho. But after the first day of competition Feb. 20, Española was tied for 10th in the team standings. Only three wrestlers — Dominguez, Lucas Montoya and Mariano Montoya — advanced to the semifinals for Española.
The Sundevils finished the tournament in 11th place with 87 points. Silver City took the team championship with 156 points.
“We didn’t do anywhere near as well as I thought we could,” Española coach Henry MacErnie said. “Not much to say, we got beat and we can’t make excuses.”
For senior Lucas Montoya, his high school career came to a sudden end short of the goal of a state championship. After finishing fourth in the 130-pound weight class in 2007 and 2008, Montoya battled his way to the 135-pound championship match this season, where he faced Deming’s Ricky Uribe.
Montoya scored first with a take down to take a 2-0 lead, while Uribe executed an escape to make the score 2-1. Montoya increased his lead to 3-1 with an escape, but Uribe executed a reverse that scored two points and tied the match at 3-3 in the third period. Montoya nearly scored another two points with a take-down in the closing seconds of the third and final period, but his move was completed out-of-bounds and no points were awarded. The score was 3-3 at the end of regulation and went into overtime.
In the first 30-second overtime, the first wrestler to score wins. As the period approached its end, Uribe scored on a take down, scoring two points and winning the match 5-3 and the championship.
“He held onto my leg,” Montoya said. “I thought I could twist away from him, but he pulled it hard and it was over.”
Montoya took second and despite his disappointment and a few tears, he looked back positively on his wrestling career.
“I worked hard, wrestled hard, won hard and lost hard,” Montoya said.
Sharing some tears with Lucas Montoya was younger brother junior Mariano Montoya, who also suffered disappointment at the state competition.
Mariano Montoya had pinned his first two opponents on his way to a showdown with defending state champion, Sam Hollar of Aztec, in the semifinals of the 145-pound weight class. Hollar and Montoya had met twice during the season, with each winning once. In the semifinals, the two evenly-matched wrestlers battled into the third two-minute period of regulation with Montoya holding a slim 1-0 lead over Hollar, scoring on an escape in the first period.
With six seconds left in the match, the referee awarded Hollar a point because Montoya was penalized for stalling, tying the match at 1-1 and sending it into overtime.
“It shouldn’t have gone into overtime,” MacErnie said.
Hollar scored on a take-down in the overtime period, winning the match 2-1 and advancing to the championship. Hollar defeated Deming’s Danny Padron in the championship match.
The disappointed Montoya had to regroup for his next match, where he faced Kirtland Central’s Douglas Ben for third place.
“I couldn’t change it,” Mariano Montoya said. “I had to concentrate on third.”
Mariano Montoya dominated Ben and pinned his opponent at 3:47 of the second period to take third.