Tyrant Duals - High School for Colorado teams

By Tom Blair, ICW staff

The Tyrant Duals were held in Myrtle Beach, SC this past weekend – Jan 9^th & 10^th. The 38 team event was divided into two divisions with 24 teams in the National division and 14 teams in the American Division. The two Colorado team were both in the National Division. Black Fox WC would end up with a 4^th place finish, they first went undefeated in Pool F going 3 – 0. In the placement pool Black Fox would go 2 – 3 and take 4^th overall in the tournament. Black Mambas went 2 – 1 in Pool E and was placed in the 7^th – 12^th placement pool where they went 4 – 1 to take 8^th place overall.  

National Pool F – team went 3 -0

Read more: Tyrant Duals - High School for Colorado teams

Colorado High School Wrestling Season 2021

By Tom Blair, ICW Staff

Let’s look at what certainly is not a normal high school wrestling season in Colorado. With covid19 pandemic in its 10th month of control in Colorado and USA, high schools around the state have changed their normal in school learning and have put student-athletes on the back burner. Students are learning from home with little contact with teachers, friends and other classmates. Masks must be worn at all times and limited number of people are to gather in one location.

So, how does this effect high school wrestling in Colorado. To start off the wrestling season is shorten in length and the number of matches cut down to 20. Teams can only have 20 total competitions - duals, tri or quad meets with no more than 25 competitors in a gym or practice area at one time per CHSAA.  There will be no individual tournament in the regular season, but postseason tournaments (regional and state will have a limited number of wrestlers – no big all classification at the Pepsi Center). But worse of all some school districts and county health departments have shut down wrestling for the season even thru Colorado State Health and CHSAA have approved the sport.

It all started in the fall of 2020 when Mapleton School District shut down all sports for the year, leaving student-athletes from Skyview (Academy High School) out in the cold and no place to really call home. Then this week on Tuesday Jan 5,2021 Boulder County Health Dept. along with Boulder Valley School District and St Vrain School District did not approve wrestling to have a season.

Read more: Colorado High School Wrestling Season 2021

CHSAA meeting with Assistant Commissioner Adam Bright

By Tom Blair, ICW Staff

Here are some of my takeaway from the Zoom meeting on Jan 6^th, 2021 at 1pm. Adam Bright made sure let everyone know that this is not a normal season and that we will allow student-athletes to compete and that is priority number one with CCHSAA.

The high school wrestling season for boys and girls teams will stay in CHSAA Season B with start date on Jan 18^th for practice and competition to start on Jan 25^th, 2021. No individual wrestler (boy or girl – varsity or JV, Freshman team) can have a max of 20 matches and no team can have more than the max of 20 duals (tri / quad) event. The last competition for teams is on Feb 27^th, 2021. The norm would be 4 duals per week for the 5 week season.

Read more: CHSAA meeting with Assistant Commissioner Adam Bright

SUNSHINE PRESEASON NATIONAL DUALS

By Tom Blair, ICW Staff

 The 2020 Sunshine Preseason National Duals were held in Orlando, Fla., on November 21-22. The tournament had three divisions – girls (k – 12 grade) freestyle, girls folkstyle and boys (6 – 12 grade) folkstyle duals. Teams from Florida, Virginia, California, Washington, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Colorado were represented in this USA Wrestling sanction event.

USA Wrestling honored wrestlers in the boys tournament, with being selected to the All-Tournament team. The tournament had 37 teams from across the nation. In total, 39 boys qualified for the Boys All-Tournament Team, representing 17 different teams. Betterman Elite had three wrestlers take home the honors -  

108 - Anthony Isek of Betterman Elite went 8- 0, 128 - Austin Thiel of Betterman Elite went 6-0, 134 - Dominic Hargrove of Betterman Elite went 8-0  

The 10 team Girl’s Folkstyle tournament with Betterman Elitle going 1 – 3 in Pool 1, with a small squad of 12 wrestlers out of 18 weight classes.

Round 1 - SOWA defeated Betterman Elite 45-34

Round 2 - Somar Raiders defeated Betterman Elite 96-6

Round 3 - Betterman Elite defeated Florida Sun 54-33

Round 4 - Michigan Revolution defeated Betterman Elite 59-31  

Betterman Elite would go 0 – 4 in the Girl’s Freestyle tournament in Pool 2

Round 1 - Michigan Revolution defeated Betterman Elite 65-38

Round 2 - Betterman Elite defeated The Storm Wrestling Center 47-47

Round 3 -  Riot Performance Academy defeated Betterman Elite 56-25

Round 4 - Florida Tidal Wave defeated Betterman Elite 68-21

 Individual results:

Read more: SUNSHINE PRESEASON NATIONAL DUALS

Interview with head coach Adam Urenda of POWA

Interview with head coach Adam Urenda of POWA at the Middle School Nationals in Ohio. click on link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY4KmYTPiRY

2020 USAW Brian Keck Memorial Preseason Nationals - Des Moines, IA - 10/30/2020 - 11/01/2020

By Tom Blair, ICW Staff

Wrestling has started this morning in Iowa, with what is call the toughest preseason national tournament. Colorado has sent a large group of 125 wrestlers totaled in the eight divisions in this event. But before we dive into the numbers, lets look at the schedule for this event which can be followed on trackwrestling.com.

Friday, October 30th

 8:00am – Doors open with screening

Medical Check/Weigh-ins: 11th-12th grade HS Boys division - 8:30am – 9:30am – Hall A 

Session I: Preliminaries & Consolation – 9th-10th grade HS Boys division - 10:00am – 2:00pm – Hall B & C
Session II: Preliminaries & Consolation – 11th-12th grade HS Boys division - 4:00pm – 8:30pm – Hall B & C  

Saturday, October 31st

7:00am – Doors Open with screening
Session III: Quarters, Semis, Cons and Medal Matches - 9th-10th & 11th-12th grade HS Boys divisions - 8:00am – 1:00pm – Hall B & C
Medical Check/Weigh-ins: 5th-6th & 7th-8th grade MS Boys divisions - 10:30am – 11:30am – Hall A
Session IV: Prelims, Quarters, Semis & Cons - 5th-6th & 7th-8th grade MS Boys divisions
2:30pm – 8:00pm – Hall B & C
Medical Check/Weigh-ins: 3rd-4th grade Boys division & HS Girls division - 6:00pm – 7:00pm – Hall A  

Sunday, November 1st
7:00am – Door opens with screening
Medical Check/Weigh-ins: 1st-2nd grade Boys & 1st-8th grade Girls divisions - 7:30am – 8:30am – Hall A
Session V: Consolation and Medal Matches - 5th-6th & 7th-8th grade MS Boys divisions - 9:00am – 12:00pm – Hall B & C
Session V: All rounds - 3rd-4th grade Boys & HS Girls divisions - 9:00am – 3:30pm – Hall B & C  

Session VI: All rounds – 1st-2nd grade Boys & 1st-8th grade Girls divisions - 1:00pm – 6:00pm – Hall B & C  

The 125 wrestlers representing Colorado are broken down into two groups – in the boys division there are 31 in the 9th / 10^th high school division, 41 in the 11^th / 12 th high school division, 20 in the middle school division and 14 in the elementary division. The break down in the girls divisions are 5 in the elementary division, 3 in the middle school division and 12 in the girls high school division.

The division sizes are boys elementary 600 wrestlers, boys middle school 455 wrestlers, 9^th / 10^th high school 606 wrestlers and 628 wrestlers in the 11^th / 12^th high school division.  The largest brackets (top 3) in the boys middle school division look to be 87 lbs / 39 wrestlers, 106 lbs / 40 wrestlers and 102 lbs / 36 wrestlers. The top Colorado wrestlers are 97 lbs Billy Greenwood / Grit, 92 lbs Micheal Lopez / MHWC and 83 lbs Griffin Rial / Black Fox Wrestling Academy.

Read more: 2020 USAW Brian Keck Memorial Preseason Nationals - Des Moines, IA - 10/30/2020 - 11/01/2020

2020 USA Wrestling Folkstyle Club National Duals

By Tom Blair, ICW Staff

 Two Colorado club teams – Team Vision Quest and Bear Cave traveled to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin for the USA Wrestling Folkstyle Club National Duals on Oct 17 -18. The event would include girls middle school, girls high school, boys middle school and boys high school. The 27 high school team dual event featured teams from around the area – 12 from Wisconsin, 8 from Minnesota, 2 from Colorado, 2 from Illinois, 2 from Nebraska and 1 from Pennsylvania.

Highway Wrestling Red (MN) would win their pool with a 4 – 0 dual meet record and were seed number 2 in the Gold placement bracket and would then go 3 – 0  in the bracket to take the crown in first place. The finals saw Highway defeat the undefeated 6 – 0 team of Askren Wrestling Academy North Shore by a score 22 – 18. 

Bear Cave and Team Vision Quest would both had a squad of 10 wrestlers taking on the area wrestlers. Bear Cave would be in Pool C and go 3 – 1 on the first day of competition. While Team Vision Quest would go 3 – 2 in Pool D on the first day.  

Pool C

Bear Cave defeated Sarbacker Wrestling Academy (WI) 54-0

Bear Cave defeated Scoring Edge Wrestling Center (MN) 50-3

Bear Cave defeated Askren Wrestling Academy Blue (WI) 37-6

No Nonsense Wrestling (MN) defeated Bear Cave 21-16

Pool D

Team Vision Quest Colorado defeated MWC Wrestling Academy White (NE) 36-12

Team Vision Quest Colorado defeated Askren Wrestling Academy White (WI) 40-9

Prior Lake Wrestling Club (MN) defeated Team Vision Quest Colorado 31-12

Team Vision Quest Colorado defeated Highway Wrestling White (MN) 30-15

Team Pennsylvania defeated Team Vision Quest Colorado 35-11  

The second day would see Bear Cave transfer into the gold placement bracket of eight teams and Vision Quest would be place into Pool 2 for round robin duals. Bear Cave placement in the gold bracket would see them take on the #1 seed of Askren Wrestling Club North Shore (WI) which ended in a 24 – 15 loss for Bear Cave putting then in the consi side of the bracket against Team Pennsylvania. Bear Cave would take another loss 26 – 16 and transferring them into the 7^th place dual against The Beast Cage (WI). Bear Cave got the upper hand in this dual with a 27 – 15 win to earn 7^th place in the bracket / tournament. Bear Cave finished with a 4 – 3 record for their efforts in the tournament.  

Day 2 saw Vision Quest go 1 – 2 in the duals in Pool 2 for a total team record of 4 – 4 on the weekend.  

Team Nazar Training Center defeated Team Vision Quest Colorado 42-6

Team Vision Quest Colorado defeated Iron KoMets 35-15

Askren Wrestling Academy Lake County defeated Team Vision Quest Colorado 31-18  

Team Vision Quest individual records:

108 Aden Young went 3 - 5

116 Roberto Estrada went 4 – 4

125 Davion Chavez went 4 – 4

132 Micheal Atencio 7 – 1

140 Kameron Hanel went 2 - 6

150 Eyan Chavez went 2 - 6

160 Tanner Baumgartner went 5 -3

175 Remington Peterson went 2 - 6

190 Braden Baumgartner went 5 – 3

285 Austin Garcia went 3 – 5  

Bear Cave Individual record:

108 Jackzen Rairdon went 4 – 3

116 Kobi Johnson went 5 – 2

125 Joseph Airola went 4 – 3

132 Oran Huff went 6 – 1

140 Ryan Vigil went 4 – 3

150 Daniel Cardenas 7 – 0

160 Cody Ginther went   2 – 2, 175 went 2 – 1

160 Antonio went 1 – 2, 175 went 0 – 4

190 Matthew Kinerson went  5 – 2

275 Noah Henderson went 4 – 3

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 9^th 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 7^th 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 5^th 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

Team Vision Quest takes 5th in dual tournament in Bettendorf, Iowa

By Tom Blair, ICW staff

Team Vision Quest took to the road in September and wrestled in Strike Zone Tournament in Bettendorf, Iowa. An RMN Event held at the TBK Bank Sports Complex. The high school dual tournament had 16 teaming looking for the first-place crown. The tournament hosted the individual section on Saturday Sept 12^th in the first of two days of wrestling. The squad of 18 Colorado high school wrestlers were able to place 5 wrestler - 113 lbs Logan Novara 6^th, 145 lbs Zach Marrero 6^th, 170 lbs Josiah Aldinger 6^th, 195 lbs Braden Baumgartner 4^th and 285 lbs Paul Ford 5^th. While having 2 wrestlers (Davion Chavez and Tanner Baumgartner) coming up 1 short from placing.

Individual Results:

106 lbs Keegan Beckford 0 – 2,113 lbs Elias Garcia 0 – 2, 113 lbs Logan Novara 3 – 3, 120 lbs Davion Chavez 3 – 2, 126 lbs Alex Castaneda 0 – 2, 126 lbs Nolan Kueny 0 – 2, 132 lbs Kameron Hanel 0 – 2, 138 Blaze Brophy 0 – 2, 145 lbs Zach Marrero 2 – 3, 152 lbs Ryan Dirksen 2 – 2, 160 lbs  - Kai Saito 0 – 2, 160 lbs Tanner Baumgartner 3 – 2, 170 lbs Issak Hosford 0 – 2, 170 lbs Josiah 4 – 3, 182 lbs Remington Peterson 0 – 2, 195 lbs Braden Baumgartner 2 – 1, 220 lbs Jacob Barr 0 – 2 and 285 lbs Paul Ford 0 -4, The team total individual record was 21 – 40.

Day 2, consisted of the dual tournament with Team Vision Quest in a pool D with 3 other teams. Round one would see a 42 – 22 win over The Empire. Round two Vision Quest would have a one-point loss 28 – 27 to Team Gotcha (Illinois). Round three would see Vision Quest rebound and score a 37 – 21 win over Bam. This would put Vision Quest at 2 – 1 in pool rounds and place them in the gold placement bracket.

The first dual for Vision Quest would be against number one seed Young Gun Black (Illinois). The scorebook had a loss for Vison Quest 59 – 0, but there were a few remarkably close matches that came down to the last seconds to decide a winner. This would put Vision Quest in the consolation side of the bracket and going against Young Gun Red (their 2^nd team ). Vision Quest again would bonce back with a strong 51 – 21 win, putting them in the 5^th place dual match against Team Gotcha who they lost to earlier in the day. The outcome would be in Vision Quest favor with a 40 – 25 revenge win and taking 5^th on the day with a 4 – 2 record.

Individual Results from duals:

106 lbs Keegan Beckford 2 – 4, 113 lbs Logan Novara 3 -3, 120 lbs Davion Chavez 3 – 3, 126 lbs Alex Castaneda 2 – 4, 132 lbs Kameron Hanel 3 – 3, 138 lbs Blaze Brophy 3 – 3, 145 lbs Zach Marrero 5 – 1, 152 lbs Ryan Dirksen 2 – 4, 160 lbs Tanner Baumgartner 5 – 1, 170 lbs Josiah Aldinger 5 – 1, 182 lbs Remington Peterson 4 – 0, 195 lbs Braden Baumgartner 2 – 4, 220 lbs Jacob Barr 0 – 6 and 285 lbs Paul Ford 2 – 4. Giving the team a 41 – 41 individual record for the duals.

A couple other highlights from the trip the Strike Zone tournament was meeting and chatting with Ben Peterson, a retired American freestyle wrestler. He competed at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won a gold and a silver medal, respectively. As a college wrestler, Peterson was a two-time NCAA champion at Iowa State. The second highlight was going to the Iowa University campus and see Carver – Hawkeye Arena and the statue of the legendary Dan Gable.

Next up for Team Vision Quest is the USA Wrestling Folkstyle Duals in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. This is a 32 dual team high school tournament, which will have pool rounds first then placement brackets. The tournament is being held on Oct. 16 – 18, 2020. The events will also host girls high school, middle school girls and boys divisions.

Team Vision Quest takes on competition at RMN

By Tom Blair, ICW

 Team Vision Quest traveled the nine hour drive to Kansas City, Missouri to take on competitors in both duals and individual matches in the high school division. The squad would compete in the 19-team dual tournament on Friday August 21^st with three team round robin pool rounds. Pool C rounds saw TVQ beat a team from Texas – Ohana Wrestling Academy 73 - 31. In the 2nd round the dual meet was rally close with a 36-34 win for TVQ over Pounders from California. The two wins would place TVQ in the gold bracket with the other top teams from the other 5 pools and the next  top 2 teams in the eight team bracket.

Round 1 in the placement bracket would see TVQ take a 54 – 12 loss to MN Allstar and put them in the consi side of the bracket. The next round / consi semifinals was a better dual but TVQ still came up short with a 39 – 24 loss to Team Kansas. With that loss the team would slide into the  7^th / 8^th place dual against MN Mashers. The TVQ team was hoping to finish with a win , but it was not in the cards as they loss 52 – 18. Finishing the dual tournament with a 2 – 3 record. The individual record for the wresters is as follows:

98 – James Pantoja 2 – 0, 106 – Nico Gonzales 4- 1, 113 Logan Navara 3 – 2, 120 Travis Long 0- 5, 125 Dimitri Garza Alarcon 3 – 2, 132 Nick Grizales 2 – 3, 138 Mason Vigil 0 – 5, 145 Blaze Brophy 1 – 4, 152 Grant Kunkel 1 – 4, 160 – Kai 0 – 5, 170 Josiah Aldinger 3 – 2, 182 Cael Jordon 2 – 3, 195 Morgan Tribbetts 2 – 3, 220 Gavin Howes 1 – 4 and 285 Tanner True 5 – 0.

The next day Saturday August 22 the team would take to the mats in early afternoon in the individual tournament, team member were all spread out on the two levels at the Hyvee Arena. When the dust settled and the whistles stop sounding TVQ would have two wrestlers taking home the hardware. In the 15U 130 lb weight class Dimitri Garza Alarcon would take the title with a 4 – 0 record. Dimitri would have his toughest match in the semifinals against Ashton Keller (LOG) which he win with an escape in the second period and then rode Keller out in the third period to take a 1 – 0 win. Tanner True at 285 was the other placer with a 3^rd place title with a 3 – 1 record.

Individual records:

98 (15U) – James Pantoja 3 - 2, 106 – Nico Gonzales 2 - 2, 113 Logan Navara 1 – 2, 120 (15U) Travis Long 3 - 2, 125 Dimitri Garza Alarcon 4 - 0, 132 Nick Grizales 1 - 2, 138 Mason Vigil 0 – 2, 145 Blaze Brophy 2 - 2, 152 Grant Kunkel 2 – 2, 160 – Kai 1 - 2, 170 Josiah Aldinger 1 – 2, 182 Cael Jordon 3 - 2, 195 Morgan Tribbetts 1 – 2, 220 Gavin Howes 1 – 4 and 285 Tanner True 3 - 1.