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PHOTOS: Longhorns open wrestling season vs. Coal Ridge, Glenwood

Basalt High School's Jesus Rodriguez, left, wrestles Glenwood's Ichiro Echavarria at 132 pounds on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, inside the BHS gymnasium.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Officially speaking, many of the matches that took place on Wednesday night in the Basalt High School wrestling team’s season-opening home triangular didn’t count. But that mat time still adds up and led to some thrilling matches inside the BHS gymnasium.

Who stood out the most for Longhorn coach Keegan Gilligan? He’d say Roselyne Bernal-Rodriguez.

“The gym was glued to the mat. Everybody was watching it,” he said of one of her main matches. “It was 15-13, and she came back at the end. Both girls looked like they were about to pass out. They were tired. It was just awesome. And then that smile at the end kind of brings it all home.”



The Longhorn boys were hosting both Coal Ridge and Glenwood Springs in the triangular, while the BHS girls had a single dual with Coal Ridge, which has one of the few other girls teams in the region. Girls wrestling only became an official CHSAA sport for the 2020-21 winter, but it’s a sport rapidly on the rise.

Basalt’s only state qualifier last season came from the girls team in then-junior Emely Mejia-Garcia, who won her opening match in Denver before back-to-back losses sent her home. The senior continues to anchor the BHS girls this season, alongside Bernal-Rodriguez.




The Longhorns officially lost the dual with Coal Ridge, 24-12, due to forfeits. But in the only officially contested match, it was Mejia-Garcia winning via fall over Coal Ridge’s Olivia Wilson. Most of the other matches were not part of the actual dual.

“We are trying to recruit more. We are trying to see if we can get some more girls here, even during the season,” Gilligan said of continuing to build the girls wrestling program at Basalt. “We have a good group in middle school, who are eighth graders this year, and we are hoping we can get all of them to come up and build around them as well. Because Emely and Roselyne are heading out at the end of the year.”

The official scorecard had the Basalt boys victorious in both duals on Wednesday. BHS beat Coal Ridge, 63-12, although the teams went 1-1 in contested matches. Basalt topped Glenwood Springs in a thrilling nightcap, 46-36, that saw 11 contested matches (BHS winning seven) and only three forfeitures.

The Demons beat the Titans in their dual, winning 60-18.

“It was a good start. We’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Gilligan said. “I’m pretty proud of my guys and my girls. They both went out there and wrestled hard.”

Basalt will compete at a triangular in Salida on Friday before teams hit the road for tournaments on Saturday. The Longhorns will host their own in-season tournament for both boys and girls on Jan. 11.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

Basalt High School wrestling’s Emely Mejia-Garcia, top, wrestles Coal Ridge during a triangular on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, inside the BHS gymnasium.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times