Farmington, Aztec seeking state repeat

WINDOW ROCK

On the strength of multiple qualifiers, the Farmington (5A) and Aztec (4A) wrestling teams are looking to repeat as state champions.

The two-day state meet starts today at the Rio Rancho Events Center. The Class 1A-3A and 4A divisions will have its state finals today while the 5A and girls have their finals on Saturday.

“We got quite a few returners out of that bunch,” said Farmington coach John Mason, whose team qualified a dozen wrestlers.

The Scorps have six state titles, and they’re looking to repeat for the second time in school history.

Aztec, meanwhile, has won 20 state titles, which includes a dozen under head coach Herb Stinson. The legendary coach built a dynasty in the early 1990s as the Tigers won 11 straight under his tenure before he retired after the 2000 season.

After a two-decade hiatus, he took over the program this past season.

“I feel we have a good chance to win,” Stinson said, as Aztec will have 13 wrestlers competing. “I mean, we have the people to get it done; it’s just a matter of us getting it done.

“We have nobody to blame but ourselves if we don’t pull this off,” he added. “We’ve got some great kids, you know, and we qualified all of our kids.

On Feb. 12, the Tigers got 11 wrestlers in the championship round at the District 1-4A meet at Miyamura High School.

Of those wrestlers, two were crown champions, with Taner Olguin (106) and Bryson Valdez (113) winning gold.

“We didn’t quite win as many as we would have liked to, but that’s not the importance of that weekend,” Stinson said. “That weekend was all about qualifying, so we accomplished our goal. We qualified everybody, so that’s good enough.”

With that many in the finals, the Tigers tallied 178.5 points. That final tally was enough to squeeze by Bloomfield for the District 1-4A crown as the Bobcats finished with 175 points.

With 125, Miyamura took third, ahead of Kirtland Central (92.5), Shiprock (66), and Gallup (33).

Bloomfield, which qualified 12 wrestlers for state, claimed six individual crowns. The district champions from the Bobcats include Adan Benavidez (125), Elias Johnson (132), Matthias DeHerrera (138), Samuel Eveland (145), Diego Snell-Martinez (160), and Augustine Aguilar (182).

Shiprock also had multiple district champions, with Hayden Goodluck (152), Cudia Tihe (195), and Jaylon Begay (285) winning their respective brackets.

Gallup’s Shawn Gomez (220) and Miyamura’s Rhys Sellers (120) were also district winners.

“I’m super thankful that we all get to go and experience it as a group, boy or girl,” Miyamura coach Nate Sellers said as he had his entire boys team make state.

“We’re wrestlers, so the gender really doesn’t matter,” he said. “But to have every one of these kids that have been working so hard all year long to qualify and be able to roll up together to the state tournament is definitely a special thing.

The Scorpions captured the District 2-5A title at Piedra Vista High School last week. Farmington edged La Cueva for the team title.

Farmington finished with 205 points while La Cueva tallied 201. Third-place finisher Piedra Vista racked up 125 ahead of Eldorado (104), West Mesa (57), and Sandia (55).

Piedra Vista, which qualified 8 state wrestlers, got one first-place finish from Reed McCarty at 138.

The Scorps, meanwhile, landed 11 wrestlers in the finals, with Julian Juarez (120), Ivan Smith (170), Ezequiel Gallegos (195), Victor Borunda (220), and Kioni Benally (285) winning the district crown.

Seven wrestlers took second, including Cash Garrett (106), Beau Wilson (113), Daxton Allison (145), Logan Cambridge (152), Wycolt Henry (160), and Isaac Foutz (182).

“We finally got our lineup together,” Mason said. “Between COVID and quarantines and a couple of small injuries we hadn’t had a lineup together for most of January.

“We got them all back together last weekend, and we did well,” he said. “I mean, La Cueva and us were tight, we were four points apart, and we’re going to be tight through the state tournament. You know, they’ve got quality kids, we’ve got quality kids, and so it’s going to be really tight with the points.”

The Farmington coach said the state title is up for grabs and the list of contenders include Los Lunas, Cleveland, Volcano Vista, La Cueva and his Scorps.

“It looks to be close,” he said. “I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if there was less than 10 points difference in the top five. It’s going to be that tight.”

Mason said he would need to get his kids into either the championship or third-place rounds for them to do well.

“Strategically, you want to get them to the end of the bracket,” he said. “That’s first and second or third and fourth. That’s where you’re going gain your most team points. Sometimes you don’t have to have the most champions, but you need a lot of guys to finish in the top four.

Fifth and six will score you some points, but it’s not that much,” he said. “It’s that top four that will score the bulk of your points.”

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