GCHS senior Jacob Francis of Grand pins Hector Carlos of Gunnison in their first match on Friday, Dec. 6 during the Moab Invitational. Francis, who competed in the 138-pound category, and Carlos met again in the finals the following day. Francis won that match on a second-round pin to take first place in his weight division.
Photo by Jeff Richards
Norwood, Colo., took first place overall with 142 team points, while the Gunnison Bulldogs came in a close second with 134 points. Summit Academy took third place with 101.5, and Monticello placed fourth with 96 points. Fifth-place Grand scored a total of 86 points, while the San Juan Broncos came in sixth with 59 points and Nucla, Colo., placed seventh with 30 points.
Two Red Devil wrestlers won in their respective brackets. GCHS senior Jacob Francis, wrestling at 138 pounds, won all seven of his matches by falls, including the championship match in which he defeated Hector Carlos of Gunnison with a pin in the second round. All of Francis’ earlier matches were decided in the first round, including an earlier defeat of Carlos.
Francis was named the outstanding wrestler of the tournament for the lower weights.
In the 285-pound (heavyweight) category, GCHS senior Edgar Gomez also went undefeated and took first-place honors. Gomez defeated McCoy Roberts of Gunnison by a pin early in the second round of the championship match. Gomez went 6-0 during the two-day tournament, which featured a round-robin style competition on Friday, followed by a seeded bracket single-elimination tournament on Saturday.
Two other Red Devil wrestlers made it to the finals. GCHS junior Robert Allred, competing at 132 pounds, earned the top seed for Saturday’s bracket. But Allred ended up losing his final match on a 9-3 decision to Hayden Harris of Norwood. GCHS sophomore Seth Holyoak placed second in the 145-pound weight category, losing on a first-round pin in the finals to Trenton Armintrout of Norwood. Also competing in that same weight category for Grand were freshman Anthony Denton and junior Qordale Tsosie.
Others competing for Grand at the tournament were Gage Longley and John Corbin at 106 pounds; Andrew Hugentobler at 126 pounds, and Richie Cordero at 152 pounds. Grand had no wrestlers in the 120-, 160-, 170-, 182- or 220-pound slots, and no 195-pound bracket was staged, due to lack of sufficient competitors.
“As a team, we don’t have very many weights filled, so this year is going to be hard for us as far as overall team points go,” said GCHS head coach Dennis Wells. “But we do have some very good individual wrestlers who should be competitive.”
The Red Devils had one dual home meet scheduled this week against Monticello, on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
Coach Wells thanked all those who helped with last weekend’s tournament and said the Red Devils are planning on hosting a similar event again in early December of next year.