Sundevils lose duels to Cobre and Moriarty
A hospitality room full of enchiladas, beans, rice and posole was apparently good enough to convince the Cobre High School wrestling team to trek all the way from Bayard to Española Valley High School to take part in the Sundevil Tri hosted by Española on Feb. 1 at Edward Medina Gymnasium.
After the original Sundevil Tri meet was unsuccessful on Jan. 22, Española head coach Aaron Salinas reached out to the New Mexico Activities Association in need of help to find teams who were willing to compete, and Cobre was one of the first who came calling.
“Right away, I got a call from Reyne Maynes, the head coach of Cobre,” Salinas said. “He’s a good friend of mine and a really cool guy. He said, ‘You know, we will travel up to Española but what are you going to give us?’ I told him, ‘We’ll make an outstanding hospitality room,’ and that lured them up here.”
Española’s District 2-4A rival Moriarty High School was the other team to join the Tri, and the Sundevils would lose that duel in a nail-biting 39-36 fashion after falling 54-18 to the Indians, the defending state champions from Class A-3A.
Losing two duels however was not substantial enough to make Salinas think the afternoon was a failure.
“This was successful and I really enjoyed it,” he said. “There was a lot of good wrestling and a lot of good matches, and it shows where we are at right now and where we need to step up. We need to work a lot on our stamina and get over some sickness.”
The three Española wrestlers who were victorious in the duel against Cobre were 106-pounder Devin Atencio, 195-pounder Aaron Altamirano and heavyweight Adrian “Diesel” Padilla.
Altamirano opened fast and ready to wrestle, as he pinned the Indian’s Aiden Quintana after a takedown with 40.4 seconds left in the first period.
“Aaron is really peaking right now,” Salinas said. “The problem is, his walking around weight is 183 and he should be wrestling at 182, but right now it’s too late to drop down for state because 25 percent of your matches must be wrestled at the weight you will qualify for in state, so he will have to battle it out at 195.”
Padilla’s match was nearly ready to extend to the third period, but the heavyweight was able to execute a pin over Keith Mohr with 4.6 seconds remaining in the second period.
The score was 6-0 in Padilla’s favor at the time of the fall, after the sophomore recorded a near fall and two takedowns.
Atencio was able to take control of his match against Gavin Placencio quickly, as he jumped out to a 9-1 lead after the first period thanks to two takedowns and two near falls.
The match ended with 38. 2 seconds left in the second period when Atencio pinned Placencio with the score 15-2 at the time.
Atencio was 2-0 on the day, as he also pinned Moriarty’s Jon Valdez with 1:35 remaining in the first period.
“Devin is also peaking right now and he is at the point now where he will be ready for state,” Salinas said about the 2018 state champion Atencio. “His confidence level has come back and his speed and his strength is getting better. He’ll have a great chance to battle for that first spot at state again.”
In the duel versus the Pintos, the winner was not decided until after the final match was wrestled, which was a 113-pound bout between Devin’s brother Landon Atencio and Moriarty’s Braden Fowner.
With the Pintos trailing 36-33 in the duel, Fowner supplied them the winning six points by way of a third period pin with 1:34 remaining in the match. Landen Atencio had trailed 3-2 after the first period and 4-3 after the second.
“That kid (Fowner) is a seasoned wrestler and he’s been wrestling for a while now,” Salinas said. “He’s a junior and Landon, he’s a ninth-grader. I do think he can beat him, but I don’t feel he went out there 100 percent.”
The Sundevils will host the District 2-4A Individual tournament at Edward Medina Gymnasium on Feb. 15. The team will first travel to Taos High School for the District 2-4A Duels on Saturday.