Seventeen teams from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were in Douglas this past weekend competing in the 28th Annual Douglas Invitational wrestling tournament.

Bruce Whetten / The Daily Dispatch Bulldog wrestler Cody Ramirez gives up two points to Benson’s Cody Graf in the 145-pound finals Saturday at the 28th Annual Douglas Invitational. Buena won the meet while Sahuarita came in second. The Bulldogs placed seventh overall in the field of 17 teams.

Buena won the tournament on the final match of the event when Nogales’ Max Montt beat Sahuarita’s Cory Noble in an overtime decision giving the Colts a 458-456 win over Sahuarita.

Cobre N.M. was third with 360 points while Benson was fourth with 317 points and Nogales fifth with 288 points.

The Bulldogs finished in seventh place with 249 points and 1A Valley Union was 16th with 77 points.

The Bulldogs had five wrestlers in the consolation or championship finals but only one was victorious.

Morgan Ramirez (170) faced Santa Rita’s Alex Chambers for third place Saturday night. Chambers had won the two previous matches the latest coming in a dual match last week at DHS.

On Saturday Ramirez took what he had learned from the two previous losses to Chambers and came away with a 7-0 win taking third place in his division. Ramirez finished the tournament with a 7-1 record.

Ramirez’s older brother Cody dropped an 11-4 decision to Benson’s Cory Graf in the championship finals of the 145 division as he wound up 6-1 in his weight class.

In the 103 pound consolation finals Douglas’ Andres Olivas dropped a 17-2 technical decision to Nogales’ Martin Inzunza giving him fourth place in his weight class. Olivas finished the tournament with a 3-2 record.

At 140 Douglas’ Ali Andrade was beaten 10-8 by Socorro’s Mizraharin Delgado in the consolation finals as Andrade finished the tournament with a 6-2 mark.

At 189 Bulldog wrestler Chawn Acosta was pinned in 2:02 by Cobre’s Juan Peru as he finished sixth in his weight class with a 3-3 mark.

Other Douglas wrestlers who competed but did not place in the top six and their records are: Steven Foster (112) 2-4; AJ Morales (119) 3-3; Martin Arvizu (125) 1-5; Rudy Rodriguez (130) 2-4; Luis Gonzalez (135) 0-7; Art Gillette (152) 1-4; Robert Guerrero (160) 3-2; Edward Noriega (215) 4-2 and Carlos Grijalva (275) 1-4.

For Valley Union Cole Christinat pinned Fabens’ Oscar Guerrero in 3:00 taking fifth place in the 215 weight class while at 275 Sergio Marmelejo was pinned in 26 seconds by Buena’s Robert Elias settling for sixth place.

Douglas’ wrestling coach Arturo Moreno said while he was a little disappointed his team had only one win in Saturday night’s matches for the most part he was pleased overall with how his young team performed Saturday.

The coach said Morgan’s win was nice because he took what he learned from the previous two matches with Chambers and used it in a positive manner.

Moreno said overall he felt a lot of his wrestlers lacked the stamina needed to compete in a tournament of this size which featured nine rounds.

"We did great the first day but the second day we really struggled," he said. "We couldn’t perform up to our ability."

The coach said all that means is more time on the mat which will hopefully be the case in the upcoming weeks.

The Bulldogs return to action Jan. 4-5 when they compete at the Benson Invitational.