Well the 2009/2010 wrestling season has wrapped up as of Saturday night, and there were some blood, sweat, and tears that were shed amongst wrestlers in the 5A, 4A, and 3A classes which made for one of the most memorable nights in New Mexico State Wrestling History. There were also many feats that had been accomplished and every wrestler that competed in the state tournament should be credited for all the hard work that has been put in for what has happened this year.

Of course in class 5A, The Rams of Rio Rancho picked up right where they left on in the first day of the tournament, taking the tournament by a long shot and a margin of 160.5 points, one of the largest point differentials known to date by the Rams. In second place came their district rivals the Cibola Cougars, who had a strong back side to earn their runner-up finish. Finally the third place finishers were the Ravens of Rio Grande who were real close behind the Cougars and missed the runner-up finish by a margin of a couple matches.

The Rams crowned seven state champions with their team title. The first state champion was Matt Nunez (125) who defeated Enoc Moscorro of Gadsden by a decision of 13-6, this is Nunez's second straight state title and he is still a junior meaning he has a chance for a third straight title for next year. The second state champion was Louis Trujillo of Rio Rancho who defeated Brian O'Neal pinning him in a minute, Trujillo earned his fourth state title and is bound for Arizona State to wrestle in college, also he is looking for a fourth straight national title at Virginia Beach.

The next state champion the Rams arsenal was Nathaniel Lujan (135) who defeated Hobbs's Alex Jackson with a fall in 31 seconds. Zack Rogers was the next state champion in line defeating Albuquerque High's DJ Lopez by a major decision of 12-3. Another champion for the Rams was Anthony Garcia (189) who made a late bump up in weight and defeated Robbie Trujillo of Los Lunas 3-2. And finally Shea Nolan (215) repeated as state champion as a junior pinning Sandia's Elliot Tsoodle in 2 minutes and 33 seconds.

On the note of Rio Rancho their sister high school Cleveland crowned its first state champion ever in Paul Mascarenas (103) who defeated rival Bo Nickal from Rio Rancho in an exciting 6-4 bout. West Mesa also had a state champion at the 112 bracket in Deshun Brown who defeated Cleveland's Mac Borrego 3-1. At 119, Joaquin Marquez of Las Cruces took his third state title in his senior campaign defeating defending State Champion Nick Pino of Cibola 8-1. At 140, Highland's Robert Lopez took a title as he won a close bout 4-2 over Juan Macias-Moreno of Carlsbad.

Another state champion and winner of a close bout was Hobb's Jarred Pratt who rebounded from a second place finish last year defeating Rio Grande's Steven Trujillo 1-0. At 160, Daniel Salvidrez of Santa Fe became champion after pinning La Cueva's Marcus Baca in three minutes; that was Baca's third straight second place finish in a row. At 171, Manzano's Brian Wilkinson shocked the bracket by winning the title as a fourth seed defeating Andrez Davalos of Highland 7-5. Finally in the heavyweight bout Valley's Andres Lucero defeated Gadsden's Oscar Escajeda of Gadsden 8-4; Lucero bounced back from a state runner-up finish last year.

The Class 4A Tournament was as bit as exciting as the 5A Tournament but still had a team that ran away with the blue trophy. The team that separated themselves from the pack was the Volcano Vista Hawks winning by a margin of 38 points to runner-up Moriarty. The Hawks despite their lineup of a freshmen mix and their handful of seniors showed why they are the best team in the 4A division. In third place was the Deming Wildcats who crowned a pair of state champions as well this year.

The Hawks managed to put five into the finals with five outcomes of state champions. Eric Montoya (112) was the first state champion for the hawks defending his title successfully winning 5-2 over Roswell's Jordan Padilla. The second state champion was Lawrence Otero (119); the freshman sensation made it to the state finals and successfully put down Valencia's Carlos Montano 6-0, no one in the entire tournament scored a single point on Otero.

The next champion was Matt Sandoval (152) he defended his title in his senior campaign pinning Deming's Drew Boggs in a minute and a half. Another champion who defended his title for the Hawks was D'Andre Gonzalez (189); Gonzalez managed to defeat the foe he had from last year in St. Pius's Sam Peters pinning him early into the third period.

Finally Heavyweight Franco Flores earned his state title in an undefeated fashion defeating Piedra Vista's Hunter Cummins 5-1. The Pintos followed as the runner-up team putting two wrestlers into the finals with a strong wrestle-back team. Jake Griego (171) was crowned as state champion and came into the tournament as a third seed and managed to pin the favorite in Farmington's John Marshall in less than a minute. The other finalist was Kiki Salcido (160) who lost a close heartbreaking bout 6-5 to Deming's Danny Padron.

The Deming Wildcats put three wrestlers into the finals. First, Josh Srader (135) broke through the tournament from his runner-up finish of last year and had a major decision of Esai Estrada of Santa Teresa 10-2. At 160, as mentioned before Danny Padron bounced back from his runner-up finish and defeated Moriarty's Kiki Salcido 6-5. Other state champions in the 4A class included Santa Teresa's Erick Rangel (103) who defeated Roswell's Raul Sanchez 4-2. At 125, Derrick Pringle of Aztec defended his state title successfully defeating Jhett Gomez in Overtime and pinning him with a fall of six minutes and fifty seconds.

At 130, Alexis Santana of St. Pius also defended his state title pinning Piedra Vista's Chris Edwards in a minute and forty-four seconds. The Kirtland Central Broncos also crowned a champion in Laremy White (140) who defeated Valencia's Juan Rodriguez 7-3. At 145, Mariano Montoya of Espanola finally accomplished his goal of a state title defeating Del Norte's Deion Medina 8-4. Finally at 215, Del Norte's Aaron Montano rebounded back from a runner-up finish defeating Farmington's Talon Spearman 3-0.

As the 3A tournament always is, it was full of great excitement and joy and it complemented the fans with great action for its proximity to the mats. But there was still the case where the St. Michael's Horsemen finally accomplished a great task and finally stopped the runner-up Robertson Cardinals from obtaining yet another title in the team scores. In third were the Bloomfield Bobcats, who were not far from the second place trophy.

Out of any team in the entire state tournament this weekend, The St. Michael's Horsemen put a whopping eleven wrestlers in the finals and came out with six individual state champions. The first state champion was Adrian Montoya (112) who came back from a runner-up finish from last year defeating Robertson's Charlie Armijo 9-5. The next state champion was eighth grader Korey Windham (125) who did the unthinkable; Windham as a number three seed defeated defending state champion Miles Davis from Wingate in overtime then came into the finals and defeated heavily-favored Jose Perez from Bloomfield in a second overtime finish winning 4-3.

The third state champion was Matt Cantu (130) who defeated Jonathan Torrez 10-7. The next state champion was Jess Martinez (145) who successfully defended his state title defeating Robertson's Troy Estrada 4-1. Another defending state champion to win another was Michael Aranda (189) who defeated Newcomb's Dallen Yazzie pinning him early in the third period. The final horseman to take his state title was Michael Lamb bouncing back from his runner-up finish of last year defeating Manuel Silva pinning him before the second period expired.

Although The Horsemen took the title by storm the Cardinals of Robertson gave them the best they could handle and putting four into the finals with two state champions, of course being the first in Daniel Martinez (152) who defeated West Las Vegas's Conrad Mares 9-2; on that note this year was Martinez's fourth straight state title and he still has one more year left to join the elite in being a five time state champion next year with Max Ortega and Michael Scott Owen. The other champion for the Cardinals was Estevan Vigil (171) who defeated John Dockter of Bloomfield 4-1.

The third place team, Bloomfield had its share of wrestlers putting only two wrestlers into the finals but had the help of their back side earn their third place finish. Jose Perez and John Dockter both earned state runner-up finishes. Other state champions included Matthew Torrez (103) of Pecos who defeated St. Michael's Anthony Bernal 2-0. The next state champion was Cobre's Daniel Udero (119) who achieved his third state title by defeating St. Michael's Joaquin Garcia 3-1. Another Cobre state champion was Xavier De La Torre (135) winning his second title rebounding from a loss to St. Michael's Dominic Sanchez defeating him 6-3.

The third Cobre state champion was Ethan Rivera (140) who ended the Cinderella run of Ishmael Romero of St. Michael's pinning him late in the third period. The fourth and final Cobre state champion was Dominick Duran (160) defeating Doug Pacheco of St. Michael's in a narrow 4-3 victory. Finally the Heavyweight champion at 3A was Ruidoso's Brennin Cross who as a third seed defeated returning state runner-up Ancension (Leroy) Sena pinning him in the second period.

The New Mexico Dream Team should be coming out soon and is chosen by the coaches of the state and will be featured in the site and updated.

Each class brought its share of shockers to the state tournament, and some shall be discussed. At the 5A 125 level two wrestlers that made the biggest noise were Manzano's Christopher Martinez and Gadsden's Enoc Moscorro, they both met up in the semi finals and Moscorro defeated Martinez who shocked many people by defeating Albuquerque High's Jordan Santiago 4-3 in the quarter finals; this was significant because Santiago was a two time state champion going into this year's state championship. Moscorro was a surprise because he came in wrestling defending state champion Matt Nunez of Rio Rancho, and for a couple seconds held the defending state champion on his back during the finals.

A big semi-final shocker at the 135 bracket was finalist Alex Jackson of Hobbs defeated Michael (Drake) Garcia 4-3, which brought Garcia and Lujan's rematch to an abrupt halt. The finals at 160 shocked many people in that Marcus Baca of La Cueva was looking for his last chance at a state title and that was cut short by Santa Fe's Daniel Salvidrez. Brian Wilkinson of Manzano was a big surprise as he caused De ja vu of last year's semi final defeating Cibola favorite Chris Defillippo and then winning the finals over third seeded Andrez Davalos.

In the 4A tournament, Kirtland Central's Laremy White clawed through a tough bracket at 140, winning 8-6 over Todd Rohde of St. Pius X in over time, then defeating the number one seed in Leeland Sons 8-3, then capping his title run off defeating Juan Rodriguez of Valencia 7-3. Another big win and upset was Jake Griego of Moriarty at 171 coming in as the three seed rebounding from his loss to Gino Duran of Del Norte and pinning favored John Marshall of Farmington in the finals.

In the 3A tournament there's only one surprise. Korey Windham is one wrestler that stands out from St. Michael's; he defeated a defending state champion in the semi finals in Miles Davis of Wingate in overtime, then defeated Jose Perez of Bloomfield in overtime as well.