Montrose’s boys wrestling team took seniors Raul Martinez who placed 2nd, Brandon Van Nooten who placed 4th and sophomore Dmarian Lopez who placed 5th, to the Colorado State Wrestling Tournament, on March 12 and 13, 2021

     Wrestling at 195, Martinez had a record of 23-2 and scored 18.0 points for his team in the state tournament. Raul fought his way to the top, but ended up placing second.

     “This season went great, I learned a lot and wrestled good, but it didn’t end like I wanted it to… through the season, I felt really good about my performance,” said Martinez.

     Van Nooten, wrestling at 285, had a record of 17-4 and scored 11.0 team points in the state tournament. Van Nooten lost in the quarterfinals in overtime, then went to the consolations where he won his next two matches to get to the 3rd and 4th place match where he lost, and placed 4th.

     “I think I started off not too bad, but as the season went on I started to get much better… the biggest challenge I had to overcome is wrestling at heavyweight (285) when I weighed 60 pounds lighter than most of my competitors,” VanNooten said.

     Lopez, wrestling at 220, had a record of 22-4 and also scored 11.0 team points in the state tournament. Lopez won in the quarterfinal match, but lost in the semifinals where he went to the consolation matches and lost again but then went on to the 5th place match where he won and ended with placing 5th.

     “I would say that my season was pretty successful… I didn’t perform how I wanted to during the tournament, I was injured, but I think I performed pretty well during my season.” said Lopez

     In the end, Montrose placed 12 in the 4A division, with Cheyanne Mountain in 1st, Pueblo County in 2nd, and Pueblo East in 3rd.