November 21, 2012
Pueblo Wrestling traveled to Nogales for a wrestling match. Last year it came to the final match where our heavyweight had to pin his opponent in order for us to win by 1 point, which he did. Two weeks later Nogales returned the favor by beating us soundly at the William Bell Tournament.
We have a young but very promising team this year, so we were confident, but still untested. We also didn’t have our 106 and 113 pounders, who won’t be able to wrestle until this Friday.
Right away, the score was 12 to 0 because of the 2 forfeits. The next match at 120lbs, was Christian Felix, who pinned his opponent in :52 and gave us 6pts. Michael Laborin won his next match by forfeit, tying the team score at 12 to 12. Team Captain Mark Martinez made it 18 to 12-Pueblo, with pin in 1:23. Freshman, Anthony Rivera showed promise, but suffered his 1st defeat, and the score was now tied again at 18 to 18. Seasoned wrestler Ruben Rendon was awarded a forfeit at 145lbs, making the score 24 -18 Pueblo. Senior, Jonathan Valencia then made it 30 to 18 by pinning his opponent with 3 seconds left in the match at the 152lb weight class. Christopher Tequida, who is a first year wrestler and has a lot of potential, faced a state placer and lost in the 2nd period to experience. The score at this point is Pueblo 30, Nogales 24.
With 5 matches remaining and 30 points available for the taking, the outcome was still in doubt. Sophomore Anthony Montiel and 2nd year wrestler, pinned his man in 4:21 seconds to increase Pueblo’s lead to 36 -24. At 182lbs, First year wrestler David Henriquez wrestled to a 10-10 tie, but lost in the overtime period by two points making the score Pueblo 36, Nogales 27.
With 3 matches remaining and two of our wrestlers being first timers there was still a little doubt as to the outcome, but Lawrence Michael pinned his opponent in 3:06! Pueblo 42, Nogales 27. At this point, there was no possible way Nogales could catch us. Sean Berube won at 220lbs by forfeit and Senior Nick Rojas, pinned his man in the 2nd period to arrive at our final score of 54 to 27!