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Seen scanning an opponent for weakness at last season's CHSAA Class 2A State Championships inside Ball Arena in Denver, junior Aven Bourriague closed out the first half of the 2024-25 campaign winning the 120-pound division in Ignacio's final event – Walsenburg's Pete & Ina Gomez Invitational – preceding the since-concluded holiday break.
Seen in action at last season's CHSAA Class 2A State Championships inside Ball Arena in Denver, junior Lincoln deKay will begin the second half of the 2024-25 season having conquered the 165-pound division in Ignacio's final event – Walsenburg's Pete & Ina Gomez Invitational – preceding the campaign's since-concluded holiday break.
Photo Credit: Joel Priest | Special to the Drum
Photo Credit: Joel Priest | Special to the Drum
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Grapplers poised for Pagosa tourney

Friday - January 10, 2025 by Joel Priest | Special to the Drum

Ignacio boys ready for season’s restart 

Ready to resume competition after storming into the holiday break, Ignacio’s boys are set to wrestle Saturday, Jan. 11, at 3A Pagosa Springs’ Rocky Mountain Invitational hoping to wow opponents the way they did in distant Walsenburg. 

Victorious in three of eight weights entered at WHS’ 2024 Pete & Ina Gomez Invitational (Dec. 21), the Bobcats posted a collective score of 120.5 points to rank fifth out of 29 represented schools. Colorado Springs-based 3A The Classical Academy topped the table by racking up 173 points, with only 3A Gunnison (147), 5A Colorado Springs Pine Creek’s JV (122.5), and 2A Swink (122) also separating IHS from the tourney title. 

Individually, however, even some solid resistance wasn’t enough to do so. 

Getting a final-round showdown with possible postseason implications, junior Aven Bourriague made the most out of his test against Swink’s Thomas Valdez. With first place at 120 pounds at stake, Bourriague dealt the Lion senior his first loss this winter, pulling out an 8-5 victory after six hard minutes. Improving his own record to 14-1 overall, Bourriague went 4-0 at the meet with one victory via pin and one via technical fall. 

Juniors Zane Pontine and Lincoln deKay also left Walsenburg atop their respective divisions. Pontine went 3-0 at 157 pounds, winning twice via technical fall and then by pin – against PCHS sophomore Audrick Hildenbrandt – 38 ticks into the finale’s second period. deKay, meanwhile, went 4-0 at 165 with four pins – the last flattening 2A Del Norte junior Paul Neal with one second left in the first period. Only Pine Creek senior Luke Richard, downed in an elapsed 3:40, saw a second stanza. 

Busy all day, senior Kendrick Nossaman ultimately placed fifth at 175 pounds with three of his four victories (against two losses) coming via pin – and his last defeating 4A Pueblo West JV rep Brodi Heathcock at the 2:40 mark. Junior Dillon Brann went 2-2 at 144, pinning 2A Simla’s Titus Reynolds 1:16 into the second period and routing 2A Ellicott’s Lucas Heuberger by 24-8 technical fall, but did not place after losing by pin to PWHS’ Rudy Gutierrez in one consolation semifinal. 

At 132 pounds, sophomore Cameron Bell notched a consolation-round pin of Simla freshman James Brickell and ended up 1-2, but junior Norman Hackett finished 0-2 at 138 and was pinned twice. Fellow junior Joshua Kerrigan, however, finished 3-3 (one win via pin, one via technical fall) and in sixth place at 126 after an 8-5 loss to 2A Weston Primero junior Kyler Spleen. 

After invading the RMI, Ignacio will then challenge both 3A Bayfield and 4A Durango on the 14th for La Plata County supremacy at the annual Riverside Rumble triangular – hosted this season by DHS. The ’Cats will then travel to Dove Creek on the 16th for a scheduled tri against the 2A San Juan Basin League rival Bulldogs and Moab, Utah, Grand County, then sew up an intense week striving on the 17th and 18th in Farmington, N.M., at the dual-style 2025 Clash at the Coliseum. 

First-day weigh-ins for the Aztec, N.M.-hosted spectacle at McGee Park Memorial Coliseum will be at 8 a.m. 

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