Cleveland High girls win state wrestling title; Storm boys are runners-up

Here’s the brain trust that led Cleveland High to two team wrestling trophies at state: boys’ head coach Evan Copeland, left, and first-year head coach for the girls, Mac Borrego, a state champ back in 2011. (Herron photo

RIO RANCHO – After needing less than two minutes to record three falls on his way to the 114-pound championship match Saturday evening in the Rio Rancho Events Center, that final showdown must have seemed like an eternity to Cleveland High sophomore Roman Luttrell.

It took three two-minute periods for this three-time state champ to outlast Volcano Vista’s Gabriel Serros, with Luttrell’s eventual 6-0 decision giving him his third straight state title. Only a sophomore, he is on pace to catch the city’s only five-time state champ, Max Ortega of Rio Rancho High School, who was a titlist for the Rams from 2005-09.

“I’m a little disappointed, yeah,” Luttrell said after his win, giving him a 45-2 record for the season, which included his 100th career win.

In his three matches leading to the championship match, he’d recorded three first-period falls, requiring less than three minutes.

“I didn’t win the match the way I wanted to,” he added, after being asked why he didn’t do a celebratory back flip. “Can’t be celebrating over decision wins, you know what I mean?”

It was the first of two individual titles for the Storm boys, who finished second to Volcano Vista, which repeated as state mat champs.

The top five boys’ teams were Volcano Vista (253.5 points), Cleveland (206.5), La Cueva (151), Atrisco Heritage Academy (150) and Los Lunas (138).

The VVHS girls weren’t as lucky in their attempt to repeat: The Cleveland High girls, with a champion and two runners-up, took home the blue trophy for finishing first.

The RRHS boys team, placing eighth with 70.5 points, failed for the first time in school history to have a state champ; the Rams, with one state champ each of the last five seasons — Marcus Williams, who moved to Oklahoma, won it the previous three seasons — and as many as seven in 2004 and ’09, had two get as far as the semifinals before losing Saturday.

Luttrell said he faced Serros before and had pinned him in the 1-5A regionals two weeks earlier.

“I wasn’t really expecting him to be that stingy,” Luttrell said. “I love having a tough match, because I don’t get matches like that much in the state of New Mexico, so I appreciate him. He’s super-tough, and I told him that after the match.”

Boys’ matches by division

107: Rio Rancho’s unseeded Eli Archibeque (30-14) finished third; Cleveland’s No. 1 seed Izzy Guevara (35-6) settled for sixth.

114: Luttrell won the title. RRHS did not have an entrant.

121: CHS’s Joshua Ortega (25-9) placed fourth. RRHS did not have an entrant.

127: CHS’s fourth-seeded Marcus Abeyta (38-15) placed sixth. RRHS’s unseeded Max Santos (29-18) won two of this first three matches but did not place.

133: Two unseeded city wrestlers, the Storm’s Tristan Dodd (31-12) and RRHS’s Carlos Trujillo (18-13) met in the first round, won by Dodd, who then lost his next two matches, while Trujillo won his first match in the consolation bracket before being eliminated.

139: No. 2 seed Wade “Rusty” Wallace (38-8) of Cleveland won his first two matches by fall and technical fall, then won a 9-2 decision to advance into the championship match, where he beat VVHS’s No. 1 seed Xzavier Salazar, 5-0, giving the Storm a second state champ for the first time since 2021. RRHS’s Diego Archibeque (23-13) lost two of his three matches and did not place.

145: Second-seeded James Luttrell (40-11) lost his semifinal match and finished third. RRHS’s Judea Moralez (20-17) lost a third period fall to Luttrell in the quarterfinals, then won a match and lost a match to be eliminated.

152: Cleveland’s No. 1 seed Joe Coon (44-8) chalked up three falls to advance to the championship match, where he lost a 3-2 decision to No. 2 seed Jack Byers of La Cueva. Coon trailed 3-0 after two periods, but, after staring in the down position for the third period, couldn’t get the pin he needed to win. Diego Francisco (32-13), the Rams’ No. 3 seed, lost to Byers in the semis and placed third.

160: Unseeded Merrik Ellsworth (20-16) of CHS and unseeded Jacari Smith (16-9) of RRHS failed to place.

172: CHS’s Ben Valencia (39-8), the 2 seed wearing a protective facemask, won his first two matches by fall – the win in the quarterfinals was his 100th career win – and won again in the semis, facing Hobbs’ No. 1 seed Cameron Hernandez for all the marbles. Hernandez made his 5-2 lead after the second period hold up and Valencia kneeling on the mat and removing his mask, took a few seconds to reflect on that could have been. RRHS’s unseeded Antonio Chavez (22-17) went out in two matches.

189: No. 1 seed Michael Santos (30-11) of RRHS lost in the semifinals and wound up fourth. CHS’s unseeded Degan Baca (33-12) lost his first-round match to No. 2 seed and eventual champ Logan Talley of La Cueva and went through the consolation bracket to finish fifth.

215: CHS’s No. 3 seed Micah Martinez (43-10 lost in the semifinals and wound up finishing third with a second-period fall. RRHS’s unseeded Jermiah Rios (11-14) lost both of his matches.

285: CHS’s No. 4 seed, Robert Sabado (31-8) lost in the semifinals and wound up placing fifth. RRHS did not have an entrant.

Like Heaven for Storm girls

The Volcano Vista girls weren’t as lucky as their boys’ team in their attempt to repeat: The Cleveland High girls, with a champion and two runners-up, took home the blue trophy for finishing first.

Cleveland (102.5 points) led the way, followed by Atrisco Heritage Academy (95), Farmington (89), Sandia (84.5) and Volcano Vista (84); Rio Rancho (27) finished 24th.

Storm sophomore Heaven Guevara (35-2) went to the state tournament as the No. 1 seed in the 132-pound division and left the Events Center as a state champion – the school’s second titlist, after Ashley Smith was a champ in 2023.

Guevara used three falls and a technical fall to win her weight class, which ended with a fall in 1:54 over No. 3 seed Zipporah Heneghan of Valencia.

Also racking up key points for the run to the title were Storm runners-up Smith (29-8), who was a 2 seed, and Olivia Hovey (18-11), a 3 seed, who beat the 2 seed in the semifinals before losing to unbeaten Jade Blackhart (36-0) of Los Alamos.

100-pound Alexis Saavedra (19-16) placed fourth for the Storm. 114-Aneya Chavez (9-15), 138-Jianna Coon (27-14) and 152-Alaiyah Sabado (20-15) failed to place for CHS.

The Rams had a No. 1 seed, senior Elena Cordova (19-16), who lost in the semifinals and placed sixth.

Tatum Dain (25-9), who eliminated Coon, placed fifth for the Rams. 185-Ava Gomez did not place for RRHS after a loss, a win by forfeit and a loss.