This year's New Mexico High School Wrestling Tournament was actioned packed from the get go. Heavy favored Rio Rancho had a near scare from Mayfield, but in the end the Rams ended up winning their fifth wrestling state title in a row. Today, Matthew Sanodval of NMPreps.com recaps the State Tournament from top to bottom.

More Coverage: Highlights | Individual Champs | Team Scores | Action Photos | Sandoval's Hot 14

Rio Rancho was behind the whole tournament, up until the finals trailing Mayfield and Rio Grande. It came down to the last person Rio Rancho had in the finals who was 2 time state champion Shea Nolan, he needed a major decision or better for Rio Rancho to win state as a team.

He got a pin and put them up by 2 points over mayfield to win the state title. This is the 5th consecutive year that they have won as a team. The last time that it was this close in state was in the 2006 State championship when they lost to Eldorado high school. As a program they have 8 team titles, under 3 different head coaches, Dennis Friedland, Jason Nickel, and Santos.

Will they take it again next year? this is a tricky question, because they are losing 9 seniors and 6 of them are placers, this will hurt them a lot in the upcoming years. People to look forward to on this team is Miguel Barreras, Orlando Gutierrez, John Salazar, Daniel Carrillo, and Jordan Lara.

 

Piedra Vista rolled over the entire 4A field to their 1st State wrestling title in school history. Piedra Vista finished the tournament with 224.0 points, second place Aztec had 167.0 and Los Lunas had 160.0 to finish in third. Piedra Vista's Anthony Juckes started the championship finals by winning the first individual title of the night for the Panthers in the 103 lbs weight class.

Chris Edwards took a state title home for the Panthers in the 125 lbs. weight class and his teammate Jhett Gomez followed with a title in the 130 lbs. weight class. The Panthers also had one state runner up medal, four 3rd place finishers and one 5th place medal. In all the panthers had nine state placers.

 

Daniel Martinez did get his history making 5th individual state championship, earlier in the night, but the team title went to Silver High. It is hard to imagine there would be a closer finish then there was in the 5A team title between Rio Rancho and Mayfield.

These teams were separated by two points. Well there was, the 3A title came down to the final match of the night when Robertson High ended up losing the title when their top seeded heavyweight Sam Marquez was pinned in the finals by West Las Vegas High's Brandon Chavez to give Silver High the team title by a meager 1.5 points.

Silver High ended the night with 216.5 points, Robertson High finished in second with 215.0 and St Mikes finished in third with 186.0 points. Silver had three State Champions. Ryan McCauley won the 112 lbs. weight class, Daniel McCauley won the 125 lbs. weight class and Noah Villalba won the 171 lbs. weight class. Silver City finished with 12 wrestlers placing in the tournament.  

Last night was another historic night for New Mexico Wrestling. Daniel Martinez of Robertson High School became the third wrestler in New Mexico history to win an individual state championship 5 times.  He joins Scott Owens and Max Ortega as 5 time champions.

Daniel completed his final season undefeated with a 37 - 0 record. Unlike Scott Owens and Max Ortega, Daniel is a multi-sport standout. He has received first team all-state honors on the football field and will be contending for a state title this spring in track.

He is that rare athlete that can compete at the next level in more then one sport. He has to be considered as one of the best multi sport athletes in New Mexico history.  

District 1-5A (Cibola, Cleveland, Rio Rancho, Volcano Vista) Finished with 9 of the 14 individual state champions.

 

Robertson, St Mike's, and Silver High had 19 of 28 wrestlers in the finals.

 

Four teams from the Four Corner area of the state finished in the top six places in the 4A tournament.

 

Santa Fe, Los Lunas, and Gallup moved from 5A to 4A. Volcano Vista moved from 4A to 5A. Silver High moved from 4A to 3A.  Is it time to start thinking about having one class for wrestling in New Mexico?

Several states do this, including states bigger then ours. A state title or a placer from New Mexico would carry more weight for those kids who talk to coaches at the next level.

 

Rio Rancho and Cleveland are the only two metro area teams that can consistently travel out of town for tournaments. Why can't APS entertain the idea of bringing out of state teams to Albuquerque? It would bring money into the local economy and bring a higher level of competition to our wrestlers. This could work in every other high school sport.

 

 Why did APS change the name of the City Tournament to the Metro Tournament if all the teams in the Metro area do not attend this tournament. This would raise the level of  competition, by adding Belen, Moriarty, Bernalillo, Cleveland, Rio Rancho, Los Lunas and Valencia High. Yes we have the APS invite, but this should be would should be inviting out of state competition for this tournament.  

Daniel  Martinez(Sr), Robertson- 5 Titles

Michael Lamb(Sr), St Mikes - 3 Titles

Shea Nolan(Sr), Rio Rancho - 3 Titles

Matt Nunez(Sr), Rio Rncho - 3 Titles

Jesse Martinez(Jr), St Mikes - 3 Titles

Adrian Montoya(Jr), St Mikes - 3 Titles

Eric Montoya(Jr), Volcano Vista - 3 Titles

Zach Rogers(Sr), Rio Rancho - 2 Titles

Daniel Salvidrez(Sr), Santa Fe - 2 Titles

Paul Mascarenas(So), Cleveland - 2 titles

Nck Pino(Sr), Cibola - 2 Titles