Dealing with injuries and the off time that is winter break, the Española Valley High School wrestling team returned to the mat this past weekend at the Albuquerque Academy Invitational Jan. 12 at Academy.
Española head coach Aaron Salinas said some of the team came back a little out of shape after the holiday festivities, but it wasn’t the case for the Sundevils’ Edgar Sanchez, who took first place in the 145-pound weight class by pinning Atrisco Heritage Academy’s Damian Lopez (14-4) in 2 minutes, 34 seconds in the finals to improve to 8-2 on the season.
“That guy was a pretty highly-ranked wrestler,” Salinas said about Lopez. “He’s only lost a few matches. Edgar was the underdog and he went in there and smoked the guy and I think everyone was somewhat surprised.”
In route to the first-place finish, Sanchez enjoyed a bye in the first round, then made quick work of Alex Gutierrez (17-6) from Foothill High School, pinning the sophomore in a mere 29 seconds in the semifinals.
Overall, Española filled 10-of-14 weight classes (four wrestlers out due to injury and illness) and finished ninth out of twelve competing teams with 52.5 points. La Cueva High School ran away with the meet, finishing with 223.5 points, 21.5 points ahead of second place Atrisco Heritage.
Other placers for the Sundevils were 182-pounder Aaron Altamirano (4th, lost by pin in 3:51 to La Cueva’s Thomas Fotter) and 113-pounder Attilio Winn (4th) although, there were only four total wrestlers in the class. Nikko Pacheco lost by pin to Atrisco Heritage’s Santiago Lopez at 5:23 into the match after receiving a bye in the first round of the 132-pound weight class.
“Those two guys (Altamirano and Pacheco), it’s just one little mistake here and there,” Salinas said. “Otherwise, they could have placed in the top places, but they just got to work a little harder.”
170-pounder Luis Cuevas returned from a broken wrist and just one week out of his cast, made his varsity debut. The freshman accumulated a 1-2 record with his victory coming by technical fall (17-2) over Fountain’s Gabriel Rodriguez in the first round of the consolation bracket.
Española will get a quick turnaround but will avoid traveling as Robertson High School and Rio Rancho High School head to the Valley for the Sundevil Tri starting at 3 p.m., Thursday (1/17) at Edward Medina Gymnasium.
Salinas said Rio Rancho is always tough and he expects them to bring a combination of varsity and junior varsity wrestlers, but he expects the competition between his team and the Cardinals to be evenly keeled.
“Our team is basically a scatter of a few varsity wrestlers and the rest are JV,” he said. “A lot of them are first-year wrestlers too, so it’ll be good because a lot of the competition (against Roberson) will be the same, except for Rio Rancho. Their JV, a lot of those guys could be wrestling on a varsity squad somewhere else.”
Following Thursday’s tri, Española heads to Socorro High School for the Socorro Duals at 8 a.m., Saturday.