The Dumas Demons won the Region I-5A Boys Team Championship on Saturday in El Paso. [Provided photo]
Consistency was the theme this weekend for local schools at the Region I-5A wrestling meets in El Paso, as the Panhandle seemed to have more of it than any place else.
That wasn’t more apparent than in the boys meet, which had six area schools finish in the top 10 of the team standings. At the top of the heap at the end of the day was Dumas, who won with 177.5 points despite fielding only one individual weight class champion.
Dumas was followed by defending state champion Randall, which was second with 157 points.
The girls meet was similar as far as having local schools near the top of the team leaderboard. Like their boys counterparts, the Randall girls are the defending state champions, and like the boys, the Randall girls finished second in the team standings with 131 points.
Top four individual finishers in each weight class will go to the state tournament starting Friday in Cypress.
Bronson Baxter was the lone champion for Dumas boys, winning the 145-pound weight class. Baxter defeated Aaron Aragon of El Paso Andress 5-1 to win the title.
Dumas also had three runner-up finishes and three third place finishes.
Randall had two wrestlers win individual titles. Ashton Bennert beat Hunter Bogner of Dumas with a pin at the 2:18 mark in the 113 final, and Aidan Medina won a major decision over El Paso Riverside’s Jayden Bustillos in the 126 class, 20-6.
Caprock was fourth in the team standings with 123.5 points. Josiah Pina was Caprock’s lone individual winner, beating Hereford’s Marcos Aguilar with a pin at 4:41.
Tascosa finished seventh in the team standings with 100.5 points. However, Tascosa had three individual champions, more than any other local school.
Ethan Sims pinned Carlos Magallanes of Dumas in 51 seconds in the 106 class, Thomas Pacheco pinned Caprock’s Richard Davila at 5:30 mark in the 132 class and Andres Suarez pinned Hereford’s Cesar Enriquez in 3:52 at 152.
The other local winner was Palo Duro’s Micah Wesley, who pinned Amarillo High’s Levi Slaydon in 3:40 in the 182 class.
Amarillo High finished sixth in the team standings with 105 points and Hereford was ninth with 70.5. Overall, 32 local wrestlers qualified for state.
On the girls side, Randall narrowly missed out on winning the team title. Randall finished with 131 points, just two behind winner Azle.
Two other local schools were just behind Randall. Caprock was third with 128 points and Dumas was fourth with 120.
Randall had two individual titles. Jaryn Ortegon won the 102 class with an 11-3 major decision over Caprock’s Victoria Baldivia and J’nessa Reynoso at 185 beat Caprock’s Niyasa McCampbell 3-1.
Caprock also had a pair of individual winners. Tatiana Garcia won at 119 with a 15-6 major decision over El Paso Chapin’s Keilani Guillermo. Garcia, a defending State Champion, is a perfect 37-0 this season. Caprock teammate Kareli Cadena beat Randall’s Emma Heaton 4-2 for the 148 title.
Likewise, Dumas had two titles. Serese Guillen won the 95-pound class by pinning Borger’s Britley Lopez in 5:46 and Emily Loya won at 128 by pinning Zoe Bennett in 1:22.
Tascosa’s Miliyah Pacheco defeated Randall’s Avery Martinez 5-2 to win the 110 title and Bushland’s Dally McConnell Beat Leilani Sanchez 4-1 to win at 215. All told, 19 area girls qualified for state.
