Socorro Lady Warrior wrestlers cheer on one of their teammates at the Rio Hondo Invitational.
Russell Huffman | El Defensor Chieftain

Wrestling coach Joel Partridge got a good idea of how his wrestling teams will stack against district competition this year when Socorro traveled to Silver City for a dual meet Dec 29-30 that included Silver, Mayfield, Safford, Deming and Salpointe Catholic schools.

“With the holiday break and people being away with family, we still aren’t at full strength as a team,” Partridge said. “Some of the stuff is outside of our control. But our lineups are close to being full.”

It was a 4-0 event for 107-pounder Isiah Estrada, who earned all of his wins with pins, and all of the Warriors picked up at least one win.

The other teams taking part also ended up being short-handed at the time, and there were several double forfeits over the two days.

Early in the season, Partridge and his staff are looking at several things as they work with their wrestlers, and technically there’s some cleanup work needed.

“I think technically; we’re making some mistakes. But I thought effort-wise, I was very pleased with the effort everyone put out,” Partridge said. “I’m not blaming the kids (about mistakes), but at the same time, you know, there are adjustments that we have to make as coaches.”

Partridge pointed out the efforts and improvements he saw in Angel Perez, Terrell Padilla and Kenyon Scarborough’s work.

“Terrell had some tough opponents, and he wrestled better than he has in the past with just attitude. He hustled on and off the mat. Angel is just an absolute scorer, and Cenyon just came alive and wrestled well,” Partridge said.

The Lady Warriors were short on opponents, but Jada Castillo and Jayden Kayser were impressive.

Castillo made the state finals last season and lost a match Partridge thought she had won.

Jada got her weight assessment done and is back and determined, and she’s super tough. Jayden is undefeated and just wrestled her butt off out there,” Partridge said.

Socorro will need to keep its bags packed this season with the Warriors wrestling in an eight-team district. Partridge’s charges got their first taste of wrestling on consecutive days in different towns this week when Socorro traveled to Artesia for a dual meet with Chaparral, Santa Theresa and Artesia.

Socorro then returned home to host a quad match with Saint Pius, West Las Vegas and Cobre, the three-time defending state champions.

Socorro travels to Belen on 11, and hosts the Sammy V Tournament on Jan. 14.

Wrestlers listed for the trip to Silver City included Isiah Estrada, Terrell Padilla, Angel Perez, Kane Johnson, Patrick Woods, Isaiah Ocampo, David Gutierrez, Damian Otero, Brian Armijo, Cenyon Scarborough, Arasely Moreno, Jada Castillo, Jayden Kayser, Sasha Gonzalez, Victoria Otero, Chloe Etsitty and Alexandra Martinez.

Russell Huffman | Assistant Editor