Six dozen strong - Daily Camera

PREP WRESTLING

Six dozen strong

Seventy-five local prep athletes ready to battle at Ball Arena

Centaurus’ Mason Shore, right, wrestles Pomona’s Kalob Ybarra, left, in a 190-pound match during the state wrestling championships on Feb. 16, 2024, at Ball Arena in Denver. Shore qualified for state this season as a regional champion. MATTHEW JONAS — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Skyline’s Tobias Pinson, left, was a regional champion and one of six Falcons to qualify for this year’s state tournament in Class 4A. BRENT W. NEW — BOCOPREPS.COM

Image

By Brent W. New

bwnew@prairiemountainmedia.com

This year’s state wrestling tournament will feature 75 athletes from the Boulder, Broomfield and Longmont areas. It runs Thursday through Saturday at Ball Arena.

Holy Family, Broomfield and Mead are sending both boys and girls to the tournament. The Tigers qualified nine boys and eight girls. The Eagles, eight and five. And the Mavericks, seven and four.

The rest of the local qualifiers are boys. Erie is sending eight. Skyline and Frederick each have six. Niwot three, while Monarch, Legacy, Centaurus, Silver Creek each have two. Fairview, Longmont and Lyons have one.

Mead crowned five regional champions last weekend. Breckan Palko (120 pounds), Leister Bowling IV (175s), William Eilers (215s) and Grant Gordon (285s) all won their 4A boys’ bracket. Grace Sierra (125s) won hers at the girls’ 5A Region 2.

Bowling IV and Gordon are both looking to repeat after they won individual gold while leading the Mavericks to the 4A team title a year ago. Eilers is looking to get over one last hump coming off his runner-up finish.

Holy Family also had five regional champions, led by Lorenzo Trujillo (120s), Adam Moore (138s), Fisher Reenan (165s) and Camden Austin (215s) in the boys’ 3A brackets. Veronika Hafer won the 100-pound title at the girls’ 4A Region 3.

Out of the five of them, Austin went the furthest last season at the state tournament, falling in the second round of the 3A 190s bracket.

In 5A, Broomfield had three regional champions. Manny Lopez (165s) and Nicholas Penfold (138s) won their boys’ bracket, while Shayla Martinez (190s) did the same in her girls’ weight.

Martinez will be the top seed in her bracket. She was ranked second in 5A 190s coming into last weekend but pinned the weight’s No. 1 — Pine Creek’s Melanie Marin Lopez — in the 5A Region 4 finals. A year ago, she finished fourth at 170s when girls wrestling had just one classification.

Centaurus, meanwhile, had regional champs in JR Spence (120s) and Mason Shore (215s). Shore, who took third at 5A 190s last year, pinned all three of his opponents at 5A Region 4.

Erie got another regional title from Carson Hageman (190s). The Air Force football commit is now a four-time state qualifier and a three-time regional champ. He’s 18-0 heading into the state tournament, where he finished runner-up at 4A 165s a year ago.

In 4A, Skyline had regional champs in Brody Hufford (106s) and Tobias Pinson (144s). Pinson, who finished fifth at 4A 126s last winter, is 42-1 heading into the state tournament. His lone loss came in a decision to Monarch’s Levi Carlucci at the Granite Peaks League championships in January.

Carlucci leads a local-heavy presence at 5A 144s. He lost to the bracket’s top-seed — Pomona’s Derek Barrows — in the 5A Region 1 finals. Barrows faces Erie’s Landon Hammond in Thursday’s first round. Legacy’s Landon Hetrick would face the winner of it in Round 2 if he can advance with a win over Brighton’s Keagan D’Amico.

The 4A 190s bracket leads the way with four area wrestlers, with Mead’s Woods, Silver Creek’s Ibrahim Kabore, Skyline’s Jovanny Mendoza and Frederick’s Rowen Kaiser all in the mix.

The 4A 175s bracket has three, headlined by defending champ Bowling IV of Mead, followed by Skyline’s Owen McGee and Silver Creek’s Stephen Thomas.

The 5A girls have wrestlers from both Broomfield and Mead at 105s and 120s. Mavs freshman Charleigh Czarnetzki and Eagles sophomore Abigail Borden will look for first-round upsets in 105s after each of them placed fourth at their regional. At 120s, Mead’s Erin Young is coming off a runner-up finish at regionals, while Broomfield’s Aden Windholz was fourth.