Colorado Crowns three native wrestlers at Senior Nationals

By Tom Blair, ICW Staff
Colorado has a native wrestling champion in each of the three divisions at the 2020 Senior National championship that were wrestled this past weekend in Coralville, Iowa. To start the weekend out with a title at 130 kg was #1 seed Cohlton Schultz (Ponderosa grad attending Arizona State) wrestling for the Sunkist Kids, he went 4 – 0 in the tournament. Schultz claimed his second Senior Nationals title at just 20-years-old. The second title would go to Adeline Gray, who would take the title at 76 kg in the women’s frestyle division with a 3 – 0 record.

The third title would be 9th seed Andrew Alirez (Greeley Central grad attending Northern Colorado) going 6 – 0 in the men’s 65kg freestyle division, Alirez would also earn the Outstanding Wrestler for the efforts in the tournament. Alirez defeated Saenz, Heil, No. 8 McKee, No. 1 McKenna, No. 12 Thomas, and No. 3 Henderson to bring home the gold.
Colorado was well represented in the Senior Nationals with eight wrestlers mixed into the three divisions. In the Women’s division Colorado would have three wrestlers at 76kg Tristian Kelly (Betterman Elite), going 2 – 2 and placing fourth; Geneva Gray (New York Athletic Club) would earn 7th place with a 1 – 2 record. While Adeline Gray dominated the field with her first-place finish.
Katherine Shai (Northern Colorado Wrestling Club in Greeley) made it to the finals on Saturday and captured the title in the 53kg Women’s Freestyle bracket. Shai was the No. 1 seed and looked dominant throughout the tournament, picking up one pin and two technical falls.

Mosha Schwartz (Ponderosa grad attending Northern Colorado) wrestling for Northern Colorado Wrestling Club, started off the weekend on Friday with a runner-up finish in Men’s Greco-Roman at 60kg. As the No. 7 seed, Schwartz defeated No. 11 Raimo, No. 2 Miranda, and No. 6 Koontz on his run to the tournament finals.
Ryan Deakin (Legacy grad attending Northwestern) would earn a 5th place finish by defeating David Carr (Iowa State) by a score of 5 – 2 and avenge his lost in the quarters to Carr. Deakin would finish the tournament with a 6 – 2 record.
Men’s Greco-Roman finals results
60 kg
1st - Alex Thomsen (Nebraska WTC) df. Mosha Schwartz (unattached), 5-3
Round 1 (32) – bye, round of 16 – win 8 – 0, quarters – win 8 – 7, semi – win 5 – 3;
130 kg
1st - Cohlton Schultz (Sunkist kids) df. West Cathcart (NYAC), 4-2
Round 1 (16) – win 10 – 1, quarters – win 5 – 0, semi – win 4 – 3;
Women’s freestyle finals results
53 kg
1st - Katherine Shai (Titan Mercury WC) df. Ronna Heaton (Sunkist Kids), 10-0
Quarters – win 10 – 0, semi – win 4 -0;
76 kg
1st - Adeline Gray (New York Athletic Club) tech. fall Victoria Francis (Titan Mercury WC), 10-0, 3:00
Quarters – win 4 – 0, semi – win 10 – 0;
3rd - Dymond Guilford (Titan Mercury WC) dec. Tristan Kelly (Betterman Elite), 12-3
7th - Geneva Gray (New York Athletic Club) tech. fall Samantha Springer (Unattached - MA), 12-2 1:47
Men’s Freestyle Finals results
65 kg
1st - Andrew Alirez (unattached) df. Evan Henderson (TMWC), 5-0
Round of 64 – win 10 – 0, round of 32 - win 10 – 0, round of 16 – win 11 – 5, quarters – win 6 – 4, semi – win 7 – 1;
74 kg
5th - Ryan Deakin (TMWC/Wildcat Wrestling Club) dec. David Carr (C-RTC), 5-2