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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Pintos Not Hurt by Loss

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    There were a lot of mitigating factors in the Moriarty High wrestling team's 60-9 loss to visiting La Cueva in the first dual meet of the season for both teams on Tuesday.
    Juniors Mark Ofsanik and Chris Apodaca had the only individual victories for the Pintos.
    The 5-foot-11 Ofsanik, in his first outing in a prep competition since his freshman year and after three surgeries on his left shoulder, pinned Bear Vincent Martinez at the 2:58 mark of the heavyweight match.
    "It was a JV match," Ofsanik said of the last time he wrestled in a formal high school setting. "I was wrestling injured then. I had tried to do wrestling and football with (the injury). It feels good to be back. It feels good to be wrestling varsity."
    Apodaca, in the 152-pound match, came from behind to take a 6-5 lead over La Cueva's Cody Ramirez at the concluding buzzer of the second of three 2-minute periods. Apodaca then earned a 7-5 decision with an escape with 1:04 left in the third.
    "I thought cross country would get me in a little better shape than I usually am when I start wrestling," Apodaca said. "I was expecting to be in better shape, but I was winded out there.
    "I do think we'll have a real decent team when we get all the football players. And I hope to place at state. I'm hoping for third, fourth, something like that."
    Pintos eighth-year coach Joey Gonzales saw other positives.
    "I was real proud of (Marjolein) Lopez," the coach said of his female wrestler who competed at 119. "She did very well. And Matt Travis (in a match listed as a 112 exhibition), it was his fifth day of practice. He did a good job, too. Really, I was proud of all of them."
    Lopez, a wiry junior, yelped in pain just as the official penalized Bear Garrett Qualls for locking hands with 25 seconds left in the first period. The one-point levy against Qualls gave Lopez a 5-2 lead even as she was attended by Pinto athletic trainer Wayne Swisher.
    After the timeout, Qualls got a near fall at the first-period horn to tie it at 5. Lopez continued to hang in there, but the Bear extended the lead to 8-5 in the second and pinned Lopez with 43 seconds remaining in the third.
    Travis lost an 8-5 decision.
   
Prospects good
    Gonzales said the lopsided team defeat isn't indicative of the Pintos' prospects.
    "This was really our JV team vs. their varsity," said the coach, who pointed to several of his key athletes who are not yet able to compete due to their late arrival following the football season. "Our JV did a really great job. The football players have to have five days of practices before they can wrestle. This was just the second day for some of them."
    The Pintos in a pending status include Vincent Griego, Class 4A's reigning champion at 215 pounds.
    "We have about 30 kids (total) that haven't done their body-fat test," Gonzales said. "That's the bulk of the team.
    "There's a difference between (Class 5A) La Cueva and (4A) Moriarty. We have a couple of athletes who do one sport, but they have three times as many. We share athletes with the other sports. A lot of the kids in Albuquerque only do one sport. Really, that's a good thing for us."
    Going a step further, Gonzales said he's confident his Pintos will be successful.
    "We're really strong," he said. "We'll be all right. We'll be OK if we step it up. We've still got several out like Vinny Griego, 'Tank' (Eric Lucero), Bradley Spence and Tierney (Nymeyer-Trujillo)."
    The Pintos remain in District 5-4A with 2006 state champion Belen.
    "Belen will be strong again," Gonzales said. "They've got some new kids from out of state and from Albuquerque. I don't know exactly how strong they'll be, but they will be strong.
    "And Del Norte will be decent. (Albuquerque) Academy might be down a little bit, but you can never count Academy out."
    In 2005, La Cueva beat Moriarty 46-21 in an early-season dual after which the Pintos proceeded to take sixth place at the state tournament.
    Bob Kelly, in his first year as the La Cueva coach, said he has a few wrestlers/football players still out. The retired Manzano athletic director and former Monarchs wrestling coach said many of his wrestlers are grappling rookies.
    Kelly is glad to be back in the saddle.
    "I love it," he said of his coaching return. "We do still have three to six out. And we have seven seniors. But some of them are first-year wrestlers that came out for the first time 'cause there's a new coach."
    The official Moriarty-maintained scorebook and the scoreboard did reflect that La Cueva won 60-9.
    However, the tally— depending on whether the 112-pound match was really an exhibition, for which no points should have been awarded for either side, was won by La Cueva in a decision (three points), or counted as a Pintos' forfeit (six for the Bears)— should have shown LCHS winning by respective margins of 58-9, 61-9 or 64-9 but not 60-9.
    Any way you look at it, though, Moriarty lost by a substantial margin.
    The Pintos sent only four varsity wrestlers to compete in the Española Valley tournament on Saturday. Matt Ford was the runner-up at 171 pounds, Ryan Collier took third at 160 and Brian Vigil was fourth at 103.
    The Moriarty junior varsity beat a 12-team field to win the Española JV crown.
    MANZANO
    The Monarchs, who placed ninth in the Class 5A state tournament in February, will compete in the Southwest Duals this weekend in Rio Rancho to open their season. Manzano hosts Moriarty in a dual meet on Jan. 9.
    WRESTLING
    2006-07 VARSITY SEASON
    (Note: Home matches/tournaments in boldface. Dates, times and locations subject to change.)
    MORIARTY HIGH
    Remaining Schedule
   

Saturday, 9 a.m.— at Albuquerque High tournament
   

Tuesday (time TBD)— at West Mesa
   

Dec. 8, 1 p.m.; Dec. 9, 9 a.m.— at Santa Fe Capital tournament
   

Dec. 15-16 (times TBD)— Albuquerque Public Schools tournament at La Cueva
   

Jan. 2, 7 p.m.— Eldorado
   

Jan. 6, (time TBD)— Pinto Duals
   

Jan. 9, 7 p.m.— at Manzano
   

Jan. 12-13 (times TBD)— Joe Vivian Classic at Cibola
   

Jan. 17, 4 p.m.— at Del Norte Triangular (vs. DNHS and West Mesa)
   

Jan. 19-20 (times TBD)— at El Paso Bowie tournament
   

Jan. 27 (time TBD)— at Deming
    MANZANO HIGH
    Complete Schedule
   

Friday-Saturday (times TBD)— Southwest Duals at Rio Rancho
   

Tuesday, 7 p.m.— at Albuquerque Academy
   

Dec. 8-9 (times TBD)— at Las Cruces High Invitational
   

Dec. 15-16 (times TBD)— Albuquerque Public Schools tournament at La Cueva
   

Jan. 6 (time TBD)— at West Mesa Invitational
   

Jan. 9, 7 p.m.— Moriarty
   

Jan. 12-13 (times TBD)— Joe Vivian Classic at Cibola
   

Jan. 20 (time TBD)— at Highland Invitational
   

Jan. 26-27 (times TBD)— City Tournament at Eldorado
   

Jan. 31, 7 p.m.— Del Norte
   

Feb. 3, 9 a.m.— Rio Grande Triangular (vs. Rio and Eldorado)
   

Feb. 7, 7 p.m.— at Albuquerque High
   

Feb. 10, 9 a.m.— at Los Lunas Triangular (vs. LLHS and Highland)