Tigers rough out tough wrestling season
The three Taos Tigers who made it to the Wrestling State Championship on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 17 and 18) generated 10 points combined to earn the team a 50th-place finish out of the 60 teams present. None of Taos’ state qualifying wrestlers made it past the first round. This ends what was a tumultuous season for the Tigers off the mat.
Jerome Martinez (22-11) lost by decision 16-2 against Augustine Lopez (43-7). Martinez had a reversal in the second period making it 5-2, and from there Lopez took over with two takedowns and three near-falls. Lopez ended up earning third place in the 215-pound bracket with a tight 1-0 decision over Newcomb’s Nolan Dempsey. Martinez fared well in the consolation bracket, getting a pin on Silver City’s Dace Begay (11-14) and a dominant 10-0 decision over Chaparral’s Abraham Lerma. Chase Gibbs (35-12), who lost to Martinez in the first round of the Regional 1-4A Championships, ended Martinez’ season with a pin in the third period.
Nathan Fraley was bested by Del Norte’s Ezekiel Romero (34-6) in the first round by pin. Fraley won his next match against Tucumcari’s Creed Owen (11-10). Shortly after a takedown 47 seconds into the first period, Fraley worked his way into a pin on Owen. Fraley then lost to Bloomfield’s J Gutierrez (33-10).
Damian Talavera was defeated by pin against Aztec’s (28-12) CJ Saiz, setting up another encounter with Cooper Beavers of Los Alamos in the consolation bracket. Talavera beat Beavers in the Pojoaque Valley Invite, as well as in the District Duals, and Beavers returned the favor in the Regionals 1-4A Championships. Talavera ended the saga with a 10-0 decision over Beavers that featured a takedown in each of the three periods.
Fraley, Martinez and Talavera, all being underclassmen, will get another chance to make an impact at states next year. Honoring ‘Dan Dan’
Last year’s Tigers wrestling coach Robert Valencia did not return as head coach this year, leaving a vacancy that Daniel “Dan Dan” Barrone Jr. filled. Barrone’s tenure with the team was shortlived, however, as Barrone passed away last December in a singleoccupant, single-vehicle logging truck crash before the Tigers could head to their first wrestling meet in Pagosa Springs in January.
In his short time as head coach, Barrone Jr. made an impact on the wrestling community. The organizers of the Pagosa Springs meet held a moment of silence for Barrone Jr., and The West Las Vegas Dons gave Taos a plaque in his honor. The Tucumcari Rattlers put together a nice card for the team and Barrone’s family.
“Dan Dan had already kind of made an impact in the town, as far as wrestling goes, as far as getting us the wrestling room and all that going. And a lot of that was done by him before he passed,” interim head coach Martin Maes said.
At the beginning of the season, the Tigers were limited to practicing in a small room not quite big enough to fully fit a wide wrestling mat. Now they’ve expanded to the
adjacent gym, with mats spanning the length of a basketball court.
For Maes, the experience of stepping into Barrone’s shoes and coaching the Tigers was hard to define.
“That’s hard to explain. I don’t know how to explain that. It just happened. It was very crazy. We just kind of kept working. When I started working with Dan Dan, we kind of had the same look on how he wanted the team to go. It wasn’t hard for me to see what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go with it. And he didn’t have much time with them either.”
Barrone Jr.’s presence is still felt by the Tigers.
“His shoes have been on the mat all year long. Kind of weird, when he passed his shoes were just in the corner. Just sat there, and he never got back to put them on again,” Maes said. “They’ve been sitting there, and we’ve kind of put them to the side but it’s there with his plaque now.”