Regional stars shine at Rocky Mountain Invitational, Dolores wrestler places

Ryder Martyn of Durango closed out a dominant day at the Rocky Mountain Invitational held at Pagosa Springs High School on Jan. 15, finishing the 138-pound bracket with a string of decisive wins that included pins and a technical fall. Martyn’s performance helped Durango place among the tournament’s top teams and underscored the program’s depth as regional competition ramps up.

Bayfield’s Connor Martindale captured the 126-pound title, and Ignacio’s Aven Bourriague took first at 113 pounds, joining Martyn on the list of individual champions from the Four Corners. Several other local wrestlers earned spots on the podium, reinforcing the area’s continued strength in prep wrestling as teams build toward postseason qualifying and league play.

For Dolores County, the headline result was Adam Hicks’ run to the third-place match. Hicks was beaten for third by Durango’s Isiah Aguilar, 13-1, a score that left him fourth in the bracket. That finish factors into team scoring and individual seeding as schools prepare for regional qualifiers and the stretch of dual meets that determine postseason trajectories.

The tournament unfolded with the familiar tangle of quick pins and technical falls that characterize high-level prep events. Martyn’s mixture of early pins and a technical fall reflected both offensive aggressiveness and conditioning, while Bayfield and Ignacio highlighted their own wrestling pipelines by producing weight-class champions. Durango’s showing signals a balance of experienced upperweights and emergent underclass talent that could shift the competitive landscape across the southwest Colorado region this winter.

Coaches in attendance offered brief assessments of technique and growth, with attention focused on match tempo, mat awareness, and conditioning as determinants of success at larger regional tournaments. For smaller programs such as Dolores, strong individual showings like Hicks’ serve multiple purposes: they raise program visibility, help in seeding for postseason events, and can translate into increased community support for travel and coaching needs.

Beyond the mat, invitational weekends carry modest economic benefits for host towns like Pagosa Springs through hotel stays, meals, and local spending by visiting teams and families. For schools, deeper tournament runs can justify investment in coaching, strength programs, and youth feeder systems that sustain competitiveness over time.

Most teams will move from invitational play into regular-season duals and regional qualifier events in the coming weeks. For county residents tracking local athletes, the Rocky Mountain Invitational provided a snapshot of who is rising and where programs may be trending as the season moves toward regionals and state qualification.