Filiss wins in districts, set to wrestle in states
All six Taos competitors qualify to advance to final stage
Two things are safe to say after the NMAA District 4A-2 285-pound championship round match took place between Taos Tiger Lucas Filiss and Española Sundevil Adrian Padilla on Feb. 12: One is that Filiss has had a consistently excellent wrestling season and was rewarded for his hard work by advancing to the state championship; the other is that Filiss is clearly Padilla’s nemesis, as he’s been the inescapable agent of Padilla’s downfall on three separate occasions this season.
It’s also important to note there’s evidence of incremental growth, from a tactical standpoint, in his matchups against Padilla.
They first faced off in the Al Salazar Memorial Tournament hosted by St. Michael’s in December. In that bout, Filiss won by decision, 10-4. Then they faced off again in the District Duals where the Sundevils won as a team but Filiss beat Padilla by decision, 11-2. In their latest tussle, Filiss finally got the elusive pin on the big stage of the district individuals.
When asked about the secrets to his success against Padilla and other opponents this year, Coach Robert Valencia commented “he’s doing everything he needs to do. His technique you know in the beginning years of Lucas’s wrestling was, you know, his little bit of disability he has. And now to see him evolve to the wrestler he is. As far as [being] a good technician. I mean we’re just pressuring and pressuring on that kid. We stuck to the basics, with our escapes, when he took us down, our takedowns, and our pinning combinations. He did a great job. We started off two to zero with Española getting the take down. But you know what? He stayed strong. We escaped. We took him back down. We scored some back points [when the bottom wrestler has his back exposed to the mat on an angle of 45 degrees or less, points are awarded to the wrestler on top]. Came back and we got the pin. We’ve worked from the top a lot with Luke, and he’s strong from the top. He’s very strong from the top and bottom as you can see.”
As alluded to in the quote above, Padilla started with an advantage early in the first period, scoring 2 points off of a takedown. Padilla managed to work his way around to the side of Filiss. Once there, he clasped his arms around the waist of Fillis, sunk his weight down towards the mat, and spun Filiss around in a counter clockwise fashion. As a result of that powerful move, he had Filiss’ back towards him and had a variety of options to try and get the monkey off his back once and for all against Filiss.
Given the pressure and the high stakes it would have been easy to get unnerved, but Filiss was not overwhelmed. He fought back and turned the tables on Padilla. He scored escape points and led 3-2 before first choice was given to Padilla. In the referee’s position Padilla started on top and Filiss had the bottom position. After escaping again, the two heavyweights battled it out. The physical strain on trying to take down Filiss, and more importantly, the strain from trying to ward off the tenacious Filiss, could be seen in Padilla’s facial expressions. Filiss started to overpower him and try to get the pin. Before the first period was over, Filiss got the position on him but Padilla made a miraculous escape, where he was able to lift up his opponent’s right leg and wriggle his way out from under.
Filiss led 10-2 after the first period. The momentum was completely on Filiss’ side, it was only a matter of time before it would end either by pin or by a comfortable decision. Filiss still had to work for it but he found the necessary combination of moves to get the pin in the second period.
Filiss will be wrestling in the State Championships hosted by the Rio Rancho Events Center on Friday Feb. 18.
How did the other Tigers fare?
A top-three placement at the Individual Wrestling Tournament qualifies a wrestler to compete in the State Championship. All six Tigers managed to qualify for states.
Cruz Trujillo fell early in the first round to Marcos Chacon (13-11) of Los Alamos. He received a bye in the third place match and will go to states.
Eliam Sanchez won his first round matchup against Alexander Pasulka (7-13) of Los Alamos. The two wrestled the week against each other in the District 4A-2 Duals. He lost in the championship round against Noah Maez (13-6) of Española Valley. The second place finish qualifies Sanchez.
Lucion Martinez fell in the first round against Pojoaque Valley’s (11-16) Alan Padilla. He received a bye in the third place match and will go to states.
Jerome Martinez fell again to Teke Nieto (29-3) of Los Alamos in the first round. Martinez received a bye in the third place match and will go to states.
Zackary Schwarzkopf got his revenge against Uriel Chavez in the first round. Previously Schwarkopf was dominated and dismissed in the first period in his bout against Chavez in the District Duals. This time around, Schwarzkopf survived the first two periods. He was down on points but then won by pin in the third period. Chavez received a bye in the third place match and will go to states. Champions from each bracket 116 Landon Estancio
Española Valley
113 Bruno Vaquera Moriarty
120 Jonathan Valdez Moriarty 126 Cruz Sandoval Española Valley 132 Andres Lopez Moriarty
138 Noah Maez Española Valley 145 Jimmy Wilson Los Alamos 152 Kyle Coffeen Española Valley 160 Joseph Archuleta Los Alamos 170 Adryan Triana Pojoaque Valley 182 Amare Gonzalez Moriarty 195 Asaiah Kamplain Kamplain 220 Jacob Martinez
Española Valley
285 Lucas Filiss Taos