Seniors score three top-two results
Solidifying his No. 1 status amongst Class 2A’s 165-pound wrestlers, senior Lincoln deKay won all three of his bouts and helped the seventh-ranked Ignacio boys place ninth at the Center-hosted 2026 Valley Classic.
deKay started the two-day tourney off well, pinning San Juan Basin League familiar Keegan Tackett of Norwood in 54 seconds after building up a 7-0 lead, and then defeated Salida’s Jacob Johnson 8-1. Pit against Colorado Springs-based Sierra’s Donnie Herrera in the weight’s finale, deKay completed his run with a 4-2 victory.
Ranked No. 2 in 2A at 113, IHS senior Aven Bourriague went 3-1 at the meet and placed second. He made short work of Cedaredge’s Patricio Molina, pinning the Bruin in 1:20, then dominated SJBL rival Jace Bonacquista of Nucla via 19-2 technical fall. Bourriague then defeated La Jara Centauri’s Erik Garcia via 12-0 major decision but lost 9-2 to Monte Vista’s Matthew Rodriguez.
Ignacio senior Zane Pontine brought his top-ten-caliber talent to the mat at 157 pounds and also ended up a Classic runner-up. It took him just 38 ticks to stick Sierra’s Benny Saiz in the first round’s only bout, then barely two periods to tech hometown Viking Derriq Thompson 17-1. Semifinal opponent Tucker Montoya of Buena Vista proved much more difficult to subdue, but Pontine pulled out a 10-8 win to advance. Salida’s Samuel Johnson, however, proved too much and prevailed via 14-3 major.
Senior Joshua Kerrigan also placed at the event, taking fourth at 126. He went 4-2 overall, winning two bouts via major decision, but SJBL rival Conner Horn-Beanland of Dove Creek dealt him both his losses – a 15-0 tech in the 16-man bracket’s quarterfinals, then a 7-2 decision in the third-place test.
Senior Dillon Brann went 2-2 with a pin and a major at 144 pounds, but did not place. Neither did Emmanuel Lucero (0-2 at 132), Stephen Romero (0-2 at 138), Moise Grognard (0-2 at 165), Phillip Velasquez (0-2 at 175) and Zackariah Loudenburg (0-2 at 215).
All told, the Bobcats earned 90 points and trailed only eighth-place Norwood (107.5) amongst SJBL squads attending the Classic. First place overall went to 2A No. 1 Cedaredge (234), with Centauri (128), Trinidad (120.5), Limon (119) and 2A No. 6 Buena Vista (117.5) filling out the 22-team standings’ top five.
Looking ahead, Ignacio was set to travel to Nucla on Thursday, Feb. 5, for the SJBL Championships, but results were unavailable at press time. After returning and fine-tuning even more, the ’Cats will then head north into Delta County to vie for State berths at the Cedaredge-hosted 2A-Region I Championships on the 13th and 14th.