David Gutierrez Jr. 2nd at Conflict in Cleveland

Socorro wrestlers came away with three individual places and a 22th team finish from the Conflict in Cleveland wrestling tournament held over the weekend at the Rio Rancho Events Center. A total of 73 teams from five states took part in the event, which was bigger than the New Mexico state tournament.

David Gutierrez Jr.'s second-place finish was the best for Socorro wrestlers, while Isiah Estrada was fifth and freshman Kadeyn McNeil was sixth.

Arasely Moreno's seventh place was the best finish for the Lady Warriors who 37th out of 53 teams.

Sammy V Invite

The meet is a great sendoff into the 4th annual Sammy V Invitational in Socorro this weekend as the Warriors and Lady Warriors play host to more than 20 teams.

The Sammy V event is just the highlight of a weekend of local wrestling. The Lady Warriors Invite starts at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, followed by Senior Night and the Aztec Duals starting at 5:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the Sammy V Invite gets underway at 9:30 a.m., and on Sunday, the Warrior Warfare Youth Tournament will kick off at 8-8:30 a.m.

It's another jam-packed weekend for Socorro's wrestling squads, and it's not much different from the hectic schedule of the 13-mat event at the Rio Rancho Event Center.

"We wrestled good in spots, like in spurts, and then we had some lulls where we get real excited. We get the high for the match, and then you come down, and you have another match, and you have to find that same energy. So, we are managing our emotions, managing our energy. The Conflict in Cleveland tournament is a good preview of what the state feels like. I thought we wrestled well," Socorro boys coach Joel Partridge said.

Eight years ago, schools like Cleveland wouldn't have given Socorro a second thought when it came to an invitation to a dual match or tournament, but Partridge and girls coach James McNeil have changed the landscape. Socorro may be listed as a "small school" because of its 3A classification, but the results from this weekend speak to the talents and depth of much larger schools.

Socorro may not yet have the number of athletes a larger school has, but the excitement continues to build, and the wrestling camps this summer have added to the roster.

Partridge realizes that if he wants to continue Socorro's success, the roadwork he and McNeil are laying out for their teams has to get tougher.

"Overall, we're pretty young, but the kids started the season the toughest schedule I've ever put together, and they're responding, I mean, they're not shying away from any of it. I'm really pleased with them," Partridge said.

Rising from the ashes

Sometimes, you have to tear something down to rebuild, and in Partridge's case, it was the Socorro wrestling room that burned in an arson-caused blaze, wiping out the team's practice record and so much more.

The attempt to rebuild a portion of the team's practice records made Partridge realize something he had overlooked. Despite the team bringing home a record three individual state titles last year, his athletes weren't really working as hard as they had been in the past.

"I went back after the fire. I kept logs of all of my practice schedules from every year that I coached, and they burned in the fire, so I had to redo everything. When I sat down and looked at it, I realized how little we were practicing. I thought we were doing a good job. But, you know, sometimes you get complacent," Partridge said.

Basically, Partridge broke it down to where his team was practicing two and a half days, wrestling midweek and working to make weight cuts Thursday in preparation for wrestling Friday and Saturday.

The solutions? One is throwing in a dual match against Aztec the day before hosting the Sammy V Invite. It's a wrestling match that counts, but it also adds the asset of a practice atmosphere and allows for that needed one-on-one coaching in a battle situation.

It has been more than 18 months since Socorro was displaced from its wrestling room by an Easter Day fire in 2023, and Partridge is thankful to be using the Zimmerly school gym to practice, but he longs for the confines of the team's practice facility.

"I am so grateful to have had a place to wrestle, a home, while we were displaced for the last year and a half. But it's not a wrestling room. It is a gym with mats on the floor. It's not a room that's designed to wrestle in. It doesn't protection on the walls where guys can keep going when they are practicing," Partridge said.

If everything goes according to plan, Socorro will host a ribbon-cutting somewhere around Saturday, Jan. 25, and move back into the facility.

Want a cool ride?

As part of their fundraising to support travel, uniforms, and meals, the Warriors and Lady Warriors are raffling off a 2025 Polaris Ranger Crew 1000 Premium. Only 600 tickets are being sold at $100 each, and there are two other prizes, including a $1,000 Cabelas' gift card and a $1,000 Sportsman Warehouse gift card.

You can contact any local wrestler to purchase a ticket or drop by the Sammy V Invite to pick one up. The drawing will be held Jan. 31 at the Warriors wrestling room.