NMAA State Wrestling Championships Draw Competitors Across New Mexico to Rio Rancho

Vicente Garcia of West Las Vegas is back on the mat defending the 189-pound 4A crown at the NMAA state wrestling championships staged at the Rio Rancho Events Center, where wrestlers and teams from across New Mexico converged for the two-day meet that runs Feb. 20-21 and is broadcast live on FloWrestling and the FloSports app. Santa Fe New Mexican file photography shows Garcia celebrating his win over Amiri Mumba of Highland in last year’s 189-lb 4A finals, underscoring the local storylines drawing fans to Rio Rancho.

Flowrestling notes that both groups will compete simultaneously at the Rio Rancho Event Center and that the girls' competition expanded for the 2025-2026 season from 12 to 14 weight classes, with girls competing across a single 67-school classification (A-5A) and two regions. Flowrestling published full weight-class lists: boys at 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215 and 285 pounds; girls at 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 155, 170, 190 and 235 pounds.

Local seeding and prep details reported by James Barron of the Santa Fe New Mexican identify West Las Vegas’ Andres Rambo Lopez as a contender with a 43-2 record who lost last year’s 113 finals to Austin Lopez of Miyamura and whose two losses this season were each by one point to top seed Bryce Lance of Bloomfield. Taos’ Reggie Suazo enters seeded third at 190, while St. Michael’s Jedrek Lewandowski is seeded fourth at 285 after finishing second at the Region 1 Championships last week. Santa Fe High sophomore Ryan Means holds the highest Northern seed in 5A at sixth in the 175 division. Capital High qualified six girls for state, with Lilyana Roybal seeded highest among them at 11th in the 110 division.

The Rio Rancho Rams program, host of the event, lists 14 state team titles since the school's 1997 inception, 38 individual state champions and more than 100 state placers on its program page; the Rams also operate the Southwest Shootout Duals and run community events tied to the program. Local organizers are promoting a third annual craft fair at Rio Rancho High School with vendor registration handled through Takedownclubcraftfair.com and event questions directed to rr.ramswrestling@gmail.com, with an explicit request not to call the school.

For historical context, NMAA multi-time champion records show a string of high-achieving wrestlers: Max Ortega of Rio Rancho won five straight state titles from 2005-09, Anthony Juckes of Piedra Vista from 2011-15, Daniel Martinez of Robertson from 2007-11, Jose Tapia of Capital from 2013-17, and recent five-time champions Niko Trujillo of Cobre and Bryson Valdez of Aztec from 2020-24. Those multi-year runs reflect the depth of New Mexico high school wrestling entering this weekend’s meet.

Fans and coaches tracking brackets and live results can follow Flowrestling’s brackets and the FloWrestling/FloSports streaming coverage, which now incorporates Trackwrestling’s tournament tracking tools and live data into its platform for the 2026 state finals. Takeaway: Rio Rancho is hosting a state meet with expanded girls divisions, national-caliber streaming data, and marquee local storylines such as Vicente Garcia’s title defense.