Volcano Vista dominates APS Invite

Volcano Vista’s wrestlers won the Albuquerque Public Schools Invitational on Saturday at Del Norte High School.

The Hawks had three individual champions and scored 169 points, well in front of runner-up Rio Grande (125) and third-place Atrisco Heritage (120).

Freshman Moses Santiago, the No. 2 seed at 106 pounds, beat Tyler Mitchell of Rio Grande with a pin in 62 seconds to open the finals. Junior Joshua Vega had three pins leading up to the final at 120, then decisioned Chris Walton of Albuquerque High 9-4.

The most dramatic of the 14 weights was the 152-pound title match, in which Volcano Vista’s Bronson Deatheredge earned a 5-3, sudden-victory triumph over top-seeded Francisco Gomez of Rio Grande.

Atrisco’s Damion Lopez ran his record to 14-0 with a dominant showing in the 170-pound bracket. The Jags also had a first-place finisher in Ernest Martinez, who registered three pins at 220 pounds.

The host Knights produced a bracket champion at 113 pounds with undefeated junior Frankie Baca. Rio Grande junior Sergio Arellano ran his record to 14-0 with four victories — all by pin, and none of the matches longer than 106 seconds.

Manzano senior Isidro Garcia had an interesting day. He had two technical falls to open the tournament, then prevailed in sudden victory in the semis before he rolled to an easy win in the 132-pound final.

Other champs included a pair of No. 1 seeds from AHS in Javier Pavia at 138 and Ian Catanach at 145; Eldorado’s Richard Gallegos (15-0) at 160 after outscoring his four opponents 32-4; Manzano’s David Chavarria, the No. 2 seed who beat No. 1 Isaiah Chavez of Eldorado 14-10 in a competitive 182-pound final; Cibola’s Tony Chacon, who was impressive at 195 pounds; and West Mesa heavyweight Devon Gonzales, who posted three pins.

The next major meet in which the top metro-area schools will be together is the Joe Vivian Classic on Jan. 12-13 at Cibola.