DENVER – With no shortage of drama, Durango’s Trevor Gillen thrilled his legion of family and friends at the CHSAA Class 4A State Wrestling Championships on Saturday afternoon by winning third place in the heavyweight division.

But it wasn’t easy; he had only 6 seconds to spare.

Gillen stood up and pulled away from big Don Fuller of Conifer in the third-place match late Saturday afternoon at the Pepsi Center. The great escape with just :06 left on the clock broke a 2-2 tie and gave Gillen a rousing 3-2 victory to take third place at the state tournament.

“I was thinking about all those standups we do in practice, all the extra work,” Gillen said after he defeated the towering 6-5, 285-pound Fuller in the final match of his high school career.

With a late stoppage, Gillen was in the down position with 11 seconds left in the 2-2 match.

On the whistle, Gillen stood up like a bottle rocket. Then he squirmed free to win his second consecutive state medal. Gillen, who weighs 259 pounds, was fifth at state last year.

“He was a real big kid ... strong, too,” said Gillen, who won three consolation matches Saturday en route to the podium.

Gillen, son of Joe and Rebecca Gillen, said it’s difficult to get a takedown on such a tall, strong wrestler.

But once they were on the mat and Gillen was down, he knew he could get away.

So did his coach.

“Right then (with 11 seconds left at the restart), we knew we could get away,” Durango head coach Doug Cuddie said. “We knew he could get away.”

Cuddie said after Gillen picked up the tying point when Fuller kept pushing him out of bounds, they both felt like they could get a victory.

“He knew, I knew ... we both knew he would win the match,” Cuddie said.

But he was even more impressed with Gillen’s resilience Saturday after losing his first match of the year in a controversial 3-2 decision in the state quarterfinals Friday when Gillen was penalized one point for inadvertently spitting on the mat to clear his mouth.

“After (Friday), it would have been easy for him to come out here (Saturday) and place fifth or sixth ... after all, he was thinking about wrestling in (Saturday night’s) state championship,” Cuddie said.

But no.

Gillen had other ideas.

“I was trying to prove something,” Gillen said of his Saturday sweep and his third-place finish. “I wanted to show people I can still wrestle.”

He did.

Gillen, with his state medal, concluded his season with a 49-1 record.

“That one loss hurt ... I wish I would have been first,” said Gillen, ever the competitor.

Gillen, with two state medals, finished his junior and senior seasons with a combined 99-5 record.

“For him to come back and get a placing he deserves is tremendous,” Cuddie said. “Almost 100 wins in two years, that is an excellent record no matter who you are.”

Gillen started Saturday’s matches with a third-period pin of Chuck Busch of Cañon City in the consolation bracket.

Gillen, who trailed 2-0 at one point, regained a 3-2 lead before completing the pin with 1:40 to go in the third period.

That advanced Gillen into the next round of consolation where he collected another pin against AJ Pollard of Greeley Central. That came in the second period.

Two other Durango wrestlers were eliminated from the consolation rounds Saturday.

At 160 pounds, Durango senior Dakota Sutherlin locked into a low-scoring duel with Kyle Soulka of Falcon. Sutherlin grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second period. But Soulka used a takedown in the second and an escape in the third period to escape with a 3-1 win over the Durango wrestler.

At 132 pounds, Durango sophomore Nick Tarpley was bounced from the consolation bracket when he was pinned by Jordan LaRoche of Fort Lupton with 49 seconds remaining in their match. LaRoche is a senior.

Tarpley concluded his sophomore season with a trip to state and a 34-12 overall record.

“Dakota won a couple of matches here, which is great for him to go out like that,” Durango head coach Doug Cuddie said of the DHS senior.

“He was good enough to place. But he just needed to believe he was good enough to place. He wasn’t quite as aggressive as he was in his last two matches,” Cuddie said of Sutherlin’s wins over wrestlers from Greeley Central and Vista Ridge on Friday night.

“But to get here and win some matches ... he’s just a great kid,” Cuddie said.

The DHS coach said Tarpley, a sophomore, and two DHS freshmen (Matthew Lavengood at 106 and Dillon Anthony at 113) gained valuable experience at the 2012 state tournament.

They were eliminated from the consolation brackets Friday night.

“Nick made one or two mistakes in (Saturday’s) match. When you get here, you can’t do that. Especially in a match like that where the winner will place and the loser won’t,” Cuddie said.

“But he’ll be back,” Cuddie said.

Cuddie said that if the young DHS wrestlers work hard over the summer, they could have a bright future.

“Next year, we’ll see a much better Nick Tarpley, a much better Matthew Lavengood, a much better Dillon Anthony,” Cuddie said.

“And they need to know they can get to the top of the podium here ... not just make the podium but get to the top.”

dstrode@durangoherald.com