NIWOT >> As far as early-season tournaments go, the Niwot Wrestling Invitational provides an excellent window into what regionals and state might look like down the road.

No match illuminated that more for the St. Vrain Valley School District than the 190-pound finals between Erie’s Carson Hageman and Silver Creek’s Ibrahim Kaboré.

The pair of grapplers battled through a 4-4 tie late into the third period before Hageman — the two-time defending Times-Call defensive football player of the year — scored on a takedown and an escape in the final 30 seconds. That was just enough to push him over the edge to a 7-4 victory, just his third (3-0) of the season.

He packed on 25 extra pounds of muscle from last year’s state runner-up campaign at 165s.

“I’ve been wrestling for maybe like two weeks so far,” Hageman said as he tried to catch his breath. “I took a break off after football. It’s just a different weight class. Everyone has strength, so that’s the thing. You’ve got to use your quickness, I guess. I can’t use (strength), really, to my advantage, because everyone’s probably just as strong as me around there, which makes it tougher to use what I used to wrestle with.”

Kaboré spent the match calculating that same learning curve, but for a different reason. The Raptors senior had spent the entire season up to this point battling at 215s as a 190-pounder, and had to rediscover just what it took to win at the lower weight class. He now sits at 14-4 on the year.

He’ll take the next few months to decide which weight class he wants to compete in for regionals and, he hopes, state.

“I’m going to say that I’m rusty, I guess, since I haven’t wrestled at 190 for a while,” Kaboré said. “I definitely got to get back on that grind, I’m not going to lie, because that all was just mental toughness around the last 30 seconds. He got the better of me. I’ve never been shot on at 215, so that definitely makes a big difference when you’re wrestling at 190.”

Hitting the century mark

Wrestlers are their own breed when it comes to grit and toughness, and no one knows that pain better than Skyline senior Tobias Pinson. On Saturday night, he continued his comeback story with a 49-second pin over Niwot’s Ryder Evans in the 144-pound finals, his lip split and bleeding in reward.It was the 100th win of his career.

“Finally,” Pinson said. “I was out last season — well, not all of last season — but it’s good to finally get those wins in and get back on the mat. I got surgery on my right thumb, was out (until) regionals, came back, wrestled regionals. And then that week practicing for state, I broke my left thumb, so I just wrestled through it, wrestled in state, got fifth.”

Pinson moved to a perfect 23-0 on the season and credited his hunger for a state title as his chief driving focus. He certainly made quick work out of Evans, who now holds his own 14-4 record.

Other finalists

Skyline’s Brody Hufford kicked off finals at 106s with a pin over Fort Morgan’s Alexis Melendez with two seconds left in the first period. He now holds a 20-2 record. Holy Family’s Kaden McCracken (113s, 15-6 record) faced a much tougher challenge from Horizon’s Caleb Schultz, who ground out a 13-11 decision over the Tigers junior.

At 132s, Lyons’ Canyon Andrist struggled to gain any traction on Mountain View’s Diego Sirio, falling as far behind as 13-1 before finding himself pinned in the second period. Erie’s Hunter Waneka (150s, 21-3) demolished Valley’s Garrett McGirl with an 18-7 major decision, just before his teammate, Tyler Muir (157s, 16-6), lost a 17-8 battle to Valley’s Nehemiah Whaley, who scored eight of his points in the final 30 seconds.

Erie’s Austin Muir (175s, 14-5) lost his finals match thanks to an 18-8 major from Vista Ridge’s Wesley Coddington.