Storm have all 13 divisions covered for state

ALBUQUERQUE — Placing a wrestler in all 13 weight divisions for this weekend’s state meet in the Rio Rancho Events Center, Cleveland High School placed second in the Regional 1-5A tournament Saturday at Eldorado High School.

The Storm won the regional meet in 2023, its debut year. Volcano Vista won this year’s meet with 273 points, with the Storm (245.5), La Cueva (207), Rio Rancho (125) and Piedra Vista (119) rounding out the top five.

The top seven finishers at both regional meets, plus two wild car entries, qualify for the state championships. Cleveland had four regional champs: 107-pound Izzy Guevara, 114-Roman Luttrell, 139-Wade Wallace and 152-Joe Coon. 145-Reagan Luttrell and 172-Ben Valencia were runners-up; 121-Josh Ortega and 127-Marcus Abeyta placed third; 285-Robbie Sabado was fourth; 189-Degan Baca and 215-Micah Martinez were fifth; 133-Tristan Dodd and 160-Merrik Ellsworth were sixth.

The Rams have a smaller squad headed to state, with only nine matmen qualifying at the regional meet, plus the addition of 133-Carlos Trujillo, named a wild card entry.

189-Michael Santos, the son of Rams head coach Mike Santos, was the lone regional champ for RRHS, with 152-Diego Francisco a runner-up after his championship match loss to Cleveland’s Coon.

107-Eli Archibeque placed third; 145-Judea Moralez, 160-Jacari Smith and 172-Antonio Chavez were fourth; 127-Max Santos placed fifth; 139-Diego Archibeque was sixth; and 215-Jeremiah Rios placed seventh.

In 2023, for the second year in a row, neither Rio Rancho high school brought home a team trophy from the state wrestling meet. Volcano Vista won the team title; the Storm were fifth and the Rams were seventh.

Rio Rancho won team championships under coach Dennis Friedland from 2003-05; from 2006-10 under coach Jason Nickal; and in 2011, ’14, ’15, ’18 and ’19 under coach Santos.

Cleveland, which opened in 2009, claimed three titles under coach Corey Anderson in 2012, ’13 and ’16. Current coach Evan Copeland led the Storm to the crown in 2017.

Eleven city girls at state too

High school girls wrestling again takes place in one class, regardless of the school’s division, and also via two regional competitions and two wild cards in each of its dozen weight classes.

Cleveland has eight state qualifiers: 100-Alexis Saavedra (who placed seventh at regionals), 107- Mikayla Randall-Varela (second), 114-Aneya Chavez (seventh), 126-Ashley Smith (second), 132-Heaven Guevara (champ), 138-Jianna Coon (fourth, 145-Olivia Hovey (second) and 152-Aaliyah Sabado (sixth). Guevara placed third at state last year at 126, which she entered as the No. 1 seed.

Smith was a runner-up at the 2023 regional and went on to become the Storm’s first female state champ, compiling a mark of 32-9 in the 114-pound division; she is 26-7 on the mat this season.

The Rams have three at state: 107-Elena Cordova, a regional champ in ’24 who was a state runner-up at 100 pounds last year; 138-Tatum Dain, who finished fourth last year, and 185-Ava Gomez.

The seeding was to be completed after Observer press time. The championship finals for the boys and girls are slated to begin Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The full schedule of events may be viewed at nmact.org.