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DOUGLAS — The Buena Colt wrestling team gave Buena their first-ever team championship at a wrestling invitational Saturday, winning the Douglas Invitational by two points.
“To my knowledge, it’s the first time we have won the team title at any invitational,” Buena coach Dan Southard said.
Buena edged defending champion Sahuarita by two points, 458-456. Cobre was third with 360, Benson finished fourth with 317 and Nogales was fifth with 288.
Buena sent 11 of the 13 wrestlers they had entered in the tournament to the championship finals and eight of the 11 emerged victorious.
 Buena wrestler Carl Larimer prepares to pin Douglas opponent Robert Guerrera in their 160-pound division bout during Saturday’s Douglas Invitational. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
“This was one of the most courageous teams I have coached,” Southard said. “We trailed Sahuarita for two days through the pool play and new we would have to have a very strong showing in the finals to catch them.”
Buena went into Saturday’s pool play trailing the Mustangs, 215-167, but had a very good effort in the first two rounds of the morning session to cut the lead to 249-239. But Sahuarita increased their lead to 23 points in the afternoon session and led 339-316 after pool wrestling ended.
“We also had to subtract the byes from the scoring to determine the finalists,” Southard said. “This year they didn’t count the bye points that’s why some of our wrestlers finished with different records that was previously reported.”
Leading the way for the Colts were Marcus Williams (7-0), Rene Miramontes (7-1), Brett Madden (7-0), Ian Beauregard (5-1) and Emilio Gonzales (6-0).
All five wrestlers entered the finals for first and second place and three of the five took individual championships.
Williams won a 13-12 decision over David Cuhen of Cobre at 112 pounds that got the Colts on the way to the team title.
Madden pinned John Martel of Benson at 125 pounds in 5:19 and Gonzales held on to edge Damien Bernal of Benson, 4-3 at 152 pounds.
Placing second for the Colts were Miramontes, who lost an 8-6 decision to Cobre’s Nathan Aguirre at 119 pounds, and Beauregard, who lost a 14-0 decision to Americas Anthony Correa at 130 pounds.
Kevin Treftz (6-1) gave Buena a third-place finish at 189 pounds, pinning Americas Isaac Hernandez in 23 seconds.
Treftz also had the fastest pin of the day earlier in the competition, pinning Dan Contreras of Soccoro in eight seconds.
Anthony Kirkpatrick (4-3) at 215 pounds, lost an 8-4 decision to Tucson’s Savion Armstrong to place fourth.
Buena also sent four wrestlers to the fifth and sixth place finals and all four emerged victorious.
“This is where we clinched the title,” Southard said.
Jimmy Byrd (5-2) defeated Emanual Valencia, 4-3, at 130 pounds, not allowing his opponent to escape for the full two minutes of the third period.
Carl Larimer (4-2), wrestling at 160 pounds, decisioned Saul Gutierrez of Americas, 8-5.
Bryan Sieler (5-2) won a major decision over Benson’s Adam Malbeauf, 13-4 at 171 pounds, that gave Buena an extra team point.
“That set the stage for the last bout of the evening,” Southard said. “We needed a pin from Robert Ellis and he responded, pinning Valley Union’s Sergio Marmolejo in 26 seconds that gave the Colts 11 points, five for fifth place and six for the pin,” Southard said.
Ellis finished the tournament with a 4-2 record.
“We have had a lot of wrestlers in the finals before, but we never clinched it. This time we did.”
Madden, who finished the tournament with a 7-0 record, was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Wrestler for the lightweights.
Buena’s other two wrestlers, Ben Serpa and Ryan Hegedus went 3-4 and 2-3, respectively.
Tombstone finished in 14th place with 121 points, sending two wrestlers to the finals.
Cory Sarasnick, wrestling at 152 pounds, pinned Desert View’s Jesus Lizarraga in 4:43 to finish third for the Yellowjackets. Sarasnick finished the tournament with a 5-1 record.
Daniel Dotson, wrestling at 160 pounds, lost a 7-4 decision to Benson’s Mark Marby to finish sixth with a 5-2 record.
Tombstone’s other wrestlers and their records included Kyle Hop (0-7), Robert Benjamin (0-7), Brian Millican (0-6), Robert Martinez (0-6), Dakota Barney (1-6), Matt Barney (2-5), Tyrone Brown (3-3), Brett Thrasher (0-5), Mike Covelesky (1-5) and Richie Rojas (1-4).
Bisbee was 15th in the 17-team field with 88 points and failed to send anyone to the finals.
“It’s the first time ever that we haven’t had someone in the finals,” Bisbee coach Richard Chavez said. “It was a good strong tournament and even though we had seven forfeits, those who wrestled didn’t perform well.”
Chavez did single out Jeremy Heiss who finished with a 4-3 record in his first time on the mat this season.
Other Bisbee wrestlers and their records were Kelly Keegan (2-5), Jackie Garcia (3-4), Chris Fregoso (2-3), Dominic Gunsauley (3-3), Dustin Cardenas (1-4) and Nick Laviero (0-5).
All three area teams are idle until after the holiday break.
Coach W wrote on Dec 17, 2007 11:46 AM: