Adam State, CSU-Pueblo, Western State and Colorado School of Mines are all traveling this weekend to Grand Junction to Colorado Mesa campus to take on the other four teams in the RMAC. (Chadron State, San Francisco State, New Mexico Highlands, and Cal Baptist)

Western State Colorado University wrestling will be searching for the sixth Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team championship in program history beginning on Feb. 28.  This year's Region IV/RMAC Championships will be held just down the road from Gunnison in Grand Junction, Colo. on the campus of Colorado Mesa University.

Fans heading to Grand Junction are encouraged to purchase tickets ahead of time.  Fans have two options to purchase tickets, by selecting individual sessions or purchase a Championship Package with includes all four sessions.  Individual session tickets are $10 per adult and $5 for seniors or students.  The Championship Package is $35 for adults and $17 for seniors and students.  All seating is first-come, first-serve.  To purchase tickets online, fans can click here or go to www.cmutickets.com.

Western alumni, fans and friends are all invited to a social following the last round on Friday, Feb. 28.  The social will be held at the Clarion Inn on Horizon Drive at approximately 9 p.m.
 

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Written by  Kevin Lytle   Coloradoan

DENVER — Josh Villa has worked for this moment for years and the emotion showed. For Kennen Lanteri, it was business as usual.

Every hot workout in the Windsor High School wrestling gym; every early-morning run; every time Villa got out of bed thinking he couldn’t do it again, but somehow found a way to muster another grueling workout was for a single moment.

It all paid off when Villa won the Class 4A 113-pound state championship Saturday at Pepsi Center with a pin of Pueblo South’s Michael Ramirez at 5 minutes 53 seconds after Ramirez simply couldn’t handle the ferocity at which Villa was attacking him.

“To me, I wasn’t tired. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve fallen on my knees and had to get back up and get going,” said Villa after the match, a smile that may never fade etched on his face.

After Villa’s big win, Lanteri knew he couldn’t end the weekend with a loss for Windsor when he faced Jarod Albo of Broomfield.

Lanteri (47-3), a defending state champion, was down early but slowly wore down Albo (28-11) before winning a 4-2 decision in almost business-like fashion to finish his career at Windsor with back-to-back titles.

“It feels good, it’s kind of hard to describe right now,” Lanteri said. “Right now I’m in that ‘wow’ stage.”

Lanteri was down early in the match, but smartly earned points and pulled out the win in the third period.

In Villa’s emotional win he went down 5-0 early in the match, but as the periods wore on, it was clear that Villa’s training was pushing Ramirez to the breaking point.

Multiple times in the third period Ramirez (37-8) used apparent stall tactics, buying time to try and catch his breath.

It’s a point Villa (44-6) knows well, he aims to push his opponents there in every match.

“I’ve seen it before in other wrestlers,” Villa said. “They break inside. They’re mentally broke. I just knew if I kept going I would have it. I just had to keep pushing.”

Windsor finishes the state tournament with two champions in Villa and Lanteri and three fourth-place finishers in Jonathen Lewis (120), Matteo Ambriz (126) and Joseph Keller (170). The Wizards finished with 112 points, good for third place with Broomfield winning the title.

While it’s not the state championship Windsor aims for, coach Monte Trusty wasn’t disappointed with the results.

“We were a couple things away (from a team title),” Trusty said. “Last year I was pretty bitter (with a third-place finish). This year I don’t have that. The eight guys we brought went to-to-toe down to the end.”

By Jonathan Seib, Fort Morgan Times sports writer

BRUSH — — Kyle Rosenbrock wrapped up the feelings of the Brush Beetdigger team the best.

"It feels good. It felt good to get here and place. But I had bigger goals. We had bigger goals. I wanted to be champion and we wanted to win as a team and we fell a little short," said Rosenbrock after taking third in the 3A 170 Consolation finals.

"The coaches told me that the third is the hardest place to take becasue you have to come back and win it," said Rosenbrock.

He was one of several Beetidiggers that placed.

Conrad Cole, 120, took second in the state with a 5-0 loss by decision in the final round to Trenton Platte of Olathe.

I learned a lot from this one. That you have to wrestle every second, because one move can get you behind," said Cole.

"I wanted to be a three-time champion, guess I'll have to settle for two," continued Cole, who was the defending state champion.

At 220, Joe Carwin also took second in the state in a 6-5 loss by decision to Jacob Ornelas of Fort Lupton.

Oscar Soto, 285, lost to Jakob Santistevan of Strasburg to take third place.

Jose Rodriguez finished in fourth with a loss to Ricky Ayala in the third place match.

Alec Petterson also finished in fourth.

Jeron Petterson, Macky Sandoval, Beau Rocha, Alec Petterson, Zane Pfau, and Elijio Barraza Jr all qualified for State but did not place.

Brush was third in the 3A standings with 117.0 points. Valley was first with 154.0. Centauri was second with 137.5.

Rosenbrock summed up the sentiments of the team looking towards next year as well.

"I'll have the same goals. A state championship and the team championship. We are only losing two seniors so we'll be able to get right after it," said Rosenbrock.

By. Kayla Cornett
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DENVER — It hasn’t sunk in yet for the Windsor wrestlers, but it will soon.

Josh Villa, a 113-pound junior, and Kennen Lanteri, a 152-pound senior, are bringing home Class 4A Wrestling Championships titles from the Pepsi Center.

Villa (44-6) came off the mat as a champion Saturday after trailing 5-0 in the first period. And for the second time in as many days, Villa secured the win in the final seconds. Lanteri’s victory, also secured late in the match, came against Broomfield’s Jarod Albo 4-2.

With 34 seconds left in the third period, Villa scored a takedown to go up 6-5 against Pueblo South’s Michael Ramirez (37-8). But he wasn’t done.

After a blood timeout, Villa flipped Ramirez on his back and got the pin with 8 seconds left.

“It was my goal — I set it at the beginning of the year,” Villa said of winning a state title. “I said, ‘I’m gonna be a state champion this year.’ And I knew that everything I did in the wrestling room and everything I did outside of the room, it had to be towards this. It had to be this moment. It was just this only moment that I was working for.”

It was Villa’s first finals appearance after not placing last year. And because he’s a junior, he said winning a title this year just gives him more motivation for next year.

“I got to the finals and my mind was just going 100 miles per hour and then this,” Villa said. “It’s gonna hit me (today).”

Lanteri also couldn’t believe he had won his second straight state title.

“It hasn’t really settled in yet, but I think (today) it’ll be a different story,” Lanteri said. “I’m definitely happy that I was able to follow it up from last year.”

However, the Wizards were expecting to take home more than two titles, and Lanteri said the wins are bittersweet.

“I still think we’re proud of the two — I think we expected a lot more but it’s just the way it goes sometimes,” he said. “Me and Josh, I think, were really happy with that, and I think the other guys that missed out — it motivated them to do better next year.”

For part of Lanteri’s match, it didn’t look like he was going to win. Tied at 2, he was in the down position for most of the third period, which he said was a strategy to burn time. With 40 seconds left, Lanteri score the final two points and won 4-2.

“I kind of felt obligated to hold (onto) the title, so that was a big part of it, too,” Lanteri said. “And I figured it is my last year, so I have to give everything I got and try to get the win.”

Villa said he knew he had the energy and the will to win his first title, and his training this season paid off Saturday.

“I believed in myself and I knew that I could do it,” Villa said. “I knew that I just had so much. Like right now, I could go run 10 miles and not even be tired. I’ve trained to the point where it’s like, I have to literally get the crap beat out of me for me to be tired on the ground. Just no other feeling can explain this.”

By Mike Brohard Sports Editor Reporter Herald

DENVER -- The matches had been wrestled before, many times over.

They didn't really need a trip south on I-25 to do this, having met up in Berthoud and Loveland and other parts around Northern Colorado.

Just not like this. Not on a Saturday night in front of a loud, anxious crowd at the Pepsi Center, lights shining, roars, moans and groans coming from every bend in the arena and seemingly from the rafters.

Jimmy Fate and Ben Hewson had shaken hands before to start a match, but not after marching in with the best and brightest the state had to offer in the sport of wrestling. Parker Simington and Matt Combs had exchanged compliments after matches, just not with so many people watching, coaches dressed in suits instead of team colors.

Doing it in the final match of the 4A Colorado State Wrestling Championships definitely makes a difference.

They had a shared past, to be sure. For Fate and Hewson, it was the fourth match of the long season, the third for Simington and Combs.

Doomed to let history repeat itself? Not at all. In fact, Fate and Simington were more than happy to let things stay as they were. So with as much as was different for them Saturday, the results stayed the same -- Fate beat Hewson and Simington beat Combs.

It was that past that made things seem normal for all of them, but for the two victors, the spoils bring on a brand new future, that of state champions.

It feels awesome," Simington said, giving Thompson Valley a state champion for the second straight year. "I'm only a sophomore. Coming into this year, this was my goal. Just achieving it is so surreal. It just hasn't hit me yet."

Up first was Fate at 138 pounds, and as has happened in past meetings, he set the tone early. He had the first takedown, built up a 3-0 lead and never really gave Hewson an opening in posting a 5-1 victory to cap a 50-2 season.

You never would have known that all the success he's had with Hewson actually made him a touch uneasy. But when the match finally started, he put that behind him. He also decided a cautious approach -- as he felt he had taken with Hewson the past two meetings -- wouldn't work again.

"The last couple of times I wrestled him, I don't want to say I wrestled not to lose, but not as aggressive as I would have liked," Fate said. "This time I wrestled pretty aggressive, and it helped me come out on top. The last match of the year, nothing you can really lose -- a lot you can really lose, but nothing at the same time. I felt I had to lay it all out there."

Up first was Fate at 138 pounds, and as has happened in past meetings, he set the tone early. He had the first takedown, built up a 3-0 lead and never really gave Hewson an opening in posting a 5-1 victory to cap a 50-2 season.

You never would have known that all the success he's had with Hewson actually made him a touch uneasy. But when the match finally started, he put that behind him. He also decided a cautious approach -- as he felt he had taken with Hewson the past two meetings -- wouldn't work again.

"The last couple of times I wrestled him, I don't want to say I wrestled not to lose, but not as aggressive as I would have liked," Fate said. "This time I wrestled pretty aggressive, and it helped me come out on top. The last match of the year, nothing you can really lose -- a lot you can really lose, but nothing at the same time. I felt I had to lay it all out there."

"I'm not being wheeled out this year, which is cool," Hewson said. "I wrestled the way I wanted to this weekend. I gave it my all. Can't complain. I'll just go into practice next week and start on next year. That one is going to burn for awhile. My goal is to be the best in the state, so whatever it takes."

In the very next match at 145, that's what Combs was trying to do in the third period. He was already down 5-0 and was put in a position to where he had to try anything and everything. Simington (45-3) said he came close, but he was waiting, and it all resulted in a 7-1 victory.

"I got the takedown early on and was tough on top, got myself out to a good start, then got an escape. I just kind of controlled the match," Simington said. "He definitely put me in a couple of spots that were kind of sketchy, but I was able to hold on. I'm very happy with that."

It wasn't the 15-0 victory like it was in the regional final, but he also knew what Combs had done since then. The Mountain View senior had taken out two state placers and a No. 1 seed to get to the finals, so Simington took that into account as well as his previous two victories.

In the end, he walked the line between being confident, seeming cautious and going about his business the right way."I definitely knew I had to be 100 percent to beat him," Simington said. "I knew I couldn't overlook him."

Combs was in a tough spot of being proud of what he had done but falling short of a goal as a senior. A 44-7 season is good, but it just didn't have the capper he sought.

"It's definitely a tough loss," he said. "I mean, I'm proud of my performance, but it wasn't the ultimate goal I had in mind. I mean, I can't say I slacked off that last match. I tried hard."

And now Simington and Fate both know they'll have to try harder, because they figure the next state title will be harder to corral than the first.

But they'll definitely give it a try. Two more times, in fact.

"That's the goal for sure," Simington said. "You can't settle at one if you have two more shots."