72 State Champions: Josiah Rider Captures 2nd State Title
Tiger wrestlers compete head to head at State
Ten Tiger wrestlers traveled to Denver for the Colorado State Wrestling tournament last week to capture the elusive state championship that motivates all wrestlers. Along with an individual championship, the Tigers were looking for points to earn a team championship.
Seven Tigers stood on top of the podium Saturday night when all was said and done. Josiah Rider, junior, stood on top and took home his second individual title at 145 pounds. Rider wrestler four matches and pinned each opponent. In fact, Rider pinned each opponent in the first period and did not even wrestle a total of six minutes. With effortless precision, all four opponents fell. In claiming his second championship, Rider also added another individual championship to the Tiger’s state record of 72 champions. The Tigers have more individual champions than any school in Colorado.
Rider gets ready to wrestle against his opponents at state
Two Tigers, Dawson Collins, freshmen, wrestling at 106 pounds, and Dylan Martinez, junior, wrestling at 132 pounds, made it to the finals but fell just short of a state championship. Collins battled with Malik Heinselman and even earned back points but lost at the end. Martinez, lost a heart-breaker 3-4 to Theorius Robison of Pomona.
Shawn Garcia, senior, wrestling at 220 pounds, battled through the consolation bracket to claim 3rd place. Garcia also racked up team points with pins.
Tyren Castonguay, senior, wrestling at 126 pounds, fell in the semi finals but battled back for 4th place. Seth Latham, junior, wrestling at 170 pounds, also wrestled through a round or two of consolation before finishing in 4th place.
Jt Skalecki, sophomore, wrestled his way into 5th place after losing in the first round by one point.
As a team, the Tigers were state runners up. Coach Cole Allison said, ‘it isn’t where we wanted to finish, but we know what we have to do to get there.” Three underclassmen, Angelo Guillen, junior, Talen Valerio, freshman, and Hunter Tobiasson, sophomore, all scored points for the Tigers and were just one match away from the medaling round.
The 2017 team may have established a school record of seven place finishers. The wrestling team will lose two seniors, Tyren Castonguay and Shawn Garcia, but they will continue to build on the foundation established by this team. Congratulations to a great season.
