No. 7 Meloneers meet no. 3 Demons

It was a great night of wrestling Wednesday evening at Rocky Ford’s Melon Dome, where the home-standing Meloneers hosted Buena Vista and Byers high schools.

Consisting of the larger of the three teams, ten matches were wrestled between state seventh ranked Rocky Ford and third ranked Buena Vista, the visiting Demons coming away with a narrow 34-30 victory.

The match of the dual was wrestled at 120 pounds, where Rocky Ford’s Dezmon Reyes, ranked second in the state at 126 pounds, and Buena Vista’s Chris Hutchings, ranked third at 132 pounds, squared off.

Reyes scored a takedown in the opening period, was reversed by Hutchings, then managed an escape to lead the bout 3-2 after the first period. Reyes chose to start second period from the bottom position and escaped to take a 4-2 lead but was taken down by Hutchings to tie the match at four entering the third period. Being Hutchings’ choice, he chose bottom and managed a late escape to pull ahead 5-4. Reyes attempted several takedowns but time eventually expired, giving Hutchings the resume-touting 5-4 victory.

Rocky Ford opened the night with a win by fall from Cruz Vallejos, who pinned JJ Medina in 1:10 at 106 pounds to put the Meloneers ahead 6-0. Buena Vista answered the fall with one of their own at 113 pounds, as Caleb Camp won by fall over Rocky’s Mateo Martinez in 3:03 to tie the match at 6-6.

At 126 pounds, Reyes and Hutchings squared off, with Hutchings’ narrow victory putting Buena Vista ahead 9-6.

Buena Vista’s Nolan Verrier earned a major decision victory over Rocky’s Aiden Sisneros at 126 pounds, 10-0, to put the Demons ahead 13-6 and Buena Vista’s Colton Montoya defeated Rocky’s Benny Gonzalez by fall in 5:04 to up the Demon lead to 19-6.

Rocky Ford got on the board once more at 138 pounds, where Joe Zamora, ranked first statewide in Class 2A at 132 pounds, defeated Carter Romack by fall in 1:15 to narrow the deficit to 19-12.

Buena Vista won the bout at 145 pounds, where David Arellano pinned Rocky Ford’s DJ Baca in 2:53 to up the lead to 25-12 in favor of the Demons.

Coen Jaramillo won by forfeit at 152 pounds, followed by a closely contested bout at 170 pounds, pitting Rocky’s Jaden Huerta against Buena Vista’s Chris Deluca. Huerta led the bout 5-3 entering the third period, but lost the period 5-0 to drop the bout 8-5.

Leading 28-18 in the dual, Buena Vista put aside any hope of a comeback at the heavier weights, as Seth Moss defeated Rocky’s Demetrius Pettie by fall in 3:25 to go ahead 34-18.

Addison Brusuelas earned a victory by forfeit at 220 pounds for the Meloneers to cut the deficit to 34-24. Kevin Tillman, ranked fourth at 285 pounds for the Meloneers, closed the dual with a victory by fall over Abram Dubrin in 1:33.

Buena Vista won the dual 34-30.

Five matches were wrestled against Byers, Rocky Ford earning the dual victory over the Bulldogs 58-7.

In the match of the dual, Zamora met Lain Yapoujian, who is ranked second in Class 2A at 138 pounds.

Yapoujian earned a take down in the opening period and Zamora an escape to give Yapoujian a 2-1 lead. In the second period, Yapoujian earned an escape to pull ahead 3-1, and in the third period Zamora returned the favor with an escape of his own to cut the lead to 3-2. Both skilled on the mat, the remainder of the period was back and forth with neither wrestler able to earn points, ending the bout is favor of Yapoujian, 3-2.

The younger of f the Yapoujian brothers, Jon, would earn the only other victory of the dual for the Bulldogs at 113 pounds, where he defeated Rocky Ford’s Mateo Martinez, 4-0.

Rocky earned a win by fall at 106, where Vallejos pinned Porter Snyder in 4:30 and a major decision at 132 pounds, where Gonzalez defeated Tristen Davidson 17-6. Tillman made short work of Oscar Gonzalez at 285, winning by fall in 35 seconds.

Meloneers who won by forfeit include 120 pounds _ Reyes, 126 pounds - Sisneros, 145 pounds - Baca, 152 pounds - Jaramillo, 170 pounds - Herta, and 195 pounds - Pettie.

Rocky Ford would go on to claim the Santa Fe League championship the following evening in Walsenburg, winning the event with 124 total team points. Holly finished second with 83.5, Crowley County third with 80, Fowler fourth with 75, John Mall fifth with 51, Rye sixth with 45, Swink seventh with 34.5, and Las Animas eighth with 27.5.

This article originally appeared on LA Junta Tribune: No. 7 Meloneers meet no. 3 Demons