The regional tournaments all across the state provided plenty of success stories for the kids of Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley schools last weekend, as a large number of grapplers from both the boys and girls divisions found ways to extend their seasons a little bit longer.

No team exemplified that good fortune more than Erie, ranked 10th in Tim Yount’s On the Mat Class 4A rankings, after the Tigers qualified 10 boys in all to take on Colorado’s top competition at the state tournament, which will begin on Thursday at Ball Arena in Denver.

Senior Ramon Salazar and sophomore Carson Hageman led the pack with regional titles at their 4A Region 2 competition in the 132-pound and 144-pound weight classes, respectively. Hageman, who finished third in an incredibly tough regional last year — which saw the top two kids compete for the state title — has enjoyed added production on the mat with 23 pins during his second season.

“It’s more technique and then just (finding) ways to pin the guy rather than just beating kids by decision as I did last year,” Hageman said.

Salazar, of course, returns to the state’s biggest arena as a state champion, having previously wrestled at 126 lbs. He continues to impress with his No. 1 ranking in 4A and 41-5 record. It’s been a while since the Tigers saw back-to-back champions, but head coach Joe Ferrera believes his senior stud has what it takes.

“We’ve had one person in the program’s history that has repeated,” Ferrera said. “We had a chance for another kid to do it two years ago and came up short. I expect that he’s going to be in the final Saturday night. The way he’s wrestling and his style, it’s hard for a lot of guys.”

Not too far away, the Legacy boys enjoyed their own bouts with success at their 5A Region 4 competition, thanks in part to regional champions, junior Quinn Funk (190 lbs.) and senior Ryan Bynarowicz (175 lbs.).

Funk, the younger brother of former standout Gavin, has risen to a completely different level in his third season. He defeated Pine Creek’s Shay Jones in just 43 seconds to go for the gold at regionals and has dropped just three matches all year.

“Last year, if I got down sometimes I would kind of not wrestle as hard,” Funk explained. “Wrestling all the way through all my matches has definitely helped to improve my wrestling. I definitely have a better mentality this year than I did last year.

“My biggest win of the season was probably at the UNC tournament. I wrestled Bronco Hartson (Class 4A No. 1) from Roosevelt and he’s a pretty tough competitor. Being able to beat him just really showed me that I can compete with the toughest guys.”

Salazar and Funk aren’t the only two grapplers from the BoCo region that have a serious shot at winning a state crown. In last week’s On the Mat rankings, Yount listed four: Salazar (No. 1 in 4A), Mead’s Jake Glade (No. 1 in 4A, 144), Mead’s Leister Bowling (No. 2 in 4A, 157) and Funk, who’s ranked second in 5A.

In all, the area saw 14 regional champions from every classification to add more clout to those kids’ resumes heading into this weekend. From 5A Region 4, Legacy saw gold-worthy performances from Bynarowicz and Funk. Emilio Trujillo-Deen (144) made Monarch proud at Region 3 and Centaurus’ Xavier Valentin-Bradford (285) achieved the same feat in Region 2.

The 4A kids provided the biggest regional title boon for the area, led by Mead’s Glade (144), Bowling (157) and Dalton Berg (175) in Region 1. Erie earned its aforementioned regional crowns from the likes of Salazar and Hageman. Skyline’s Tobias Pinson (132) added his name atop the 4A list at Region 4.

Holy Family, the lone area representative from 3A, earned two regional crowns via Lorenzo Avila (120) and Abram Moore (215) at its Region 3 tournament. Lyons’ leading man, Jaden Gardner (157), did the same at 2A Region 1 and Broomfield’s Samantha White (130) served as the lone female champ at Region 3.

Fifty-six boys and seven girls in all punched their tickets to the state tournament, which will begin on Thursday at Ball Arena and run through Saturday night.