The day started with a stunning loss. It ended with hope for a championship.
Friday at the Colorado High School Activities Association State Wrestling Championships provides the most action-packed day of the tournament. Wrestlers face elimination for the first time, but they can also secure their place in a state title match at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Eight boys from La Plata County reached the state tournament. One will wrestle for a championship. The boy is Ignacio’s Ethan Appenzeller.
The Ignacio senior was a state runner-up a year ago. After beating John Mall’s Trystan Estrada in a 7-3 decision in the quarterfinals, Appenzeller met Merinos Remington Canfield in the semifinals.
After trailing 1-0 going into the third period, Appenzeller scored a takedown and a three-point nearfall to come away with a 5-1 decision win.
Saturday night, Appenzeller (38-4) will get a rematch of last year’s championship match against Britton Holmes (40-2) of Peyton.
“I gotta wrestle him as hard as I can,” Appenzeller said. “It’s my last match, probably, unless I wrestle in college. I’m going to go as hard as I can.”
IHS head coach Jordan Larsen said his job Saturday will be to light a fire under Appenzeller. After last year’s loss to Holmes, that shouldn’t be hard.
Ignacio’s Lorenzo Pena also reached the semifinals after a big 5-1 decision win at 160 pounds against Rocky Ford’s Carlos Magdaleno.
In the 2A semifinals, Pena wrestled a tough match against Aidan Dabal of Norwood/Nucla. In a late scramble in the second period, Pena ended up pancaked on his back and couldn’t get out. He was pinned and sent to the consolation bracket.
“Wrestling is a sport where you don’t always get what you want,” Larsen said.
“You have to accept the result and continue doing what you need to do. Men are made on the backside. To push through and take third, there’s a lot to be said for a guy that does that after a semifinal loss.”
Bayfield’s Sam Westbrook needed only 40 seconds to win a 3A quarterfinal against Josias Chavez of Denver North.
But Westbrook’s undefeated season ended in the semifinals to a defending state champion. He trailed 1-0 going into the third period against Ricky Ayala of Sheridan. Westbrook earned an escape point to quickly tie the match in the third, and then he scored the only takedown of the match to take a 3-1 lead. Ayala escaped with 20 seconds to wrestle to cut Westbrook’s lead to 3-2, and all the Bayfield senior had to do was prevent a takedown in the final seconds. But the referee called Westbrook for stalling, and that tied the match at 3-all to force overtime.
Both boys went through double overtime tied 4-4. In an ultimate tie breaker, Ayala earned an escape point to beat Westbrook 5-4 and advance to the state title match against Logan Church of Delta.
In one of the bigger upsets of the tournament this year, second-seeded Ryan Nava was pinned in the first period of his Class 3A, 145-pound quarterfinal match by Lance Bryant of Steamboat Springs. While the loss ended Nava’s chance at a state title, the four-time qualifier didn’t hold his head for long. The BHS senior bounced back in the second round of the consolation bracket with a 5-2 decision win against Leonardo Palma of Pueblo Central. He’ll keep battling in the consolation bracket Saturday with a shot at third place.
Bayfield senior Macoy Michaeli also came up short in the quarterfinals with a 11-3 major decision loss to Josh Flanagan of Valley. Flanagan was the top seed in the bracket. But Michaeli also bounced back with an impressive performance in the consolation bracket. He beat Delta’s Aiden Barrios with a 12-4 major decision to keep his hopes of third place alive.
Ignacio’s 132-pound Stocker Robbins reached the quarterfinals in his third and final trip to state. But the IHS senior fell short of becoming a three-time placer, as he dropped a 7-3 decision in the quarterfinals to top-seed Skyler Score of Highland. He then lost a 6-4 decision to Woody Aguilar of Limon in the consolation bracket to end his tournament.
Bayfield’s Garrett Beebe (126) and Jake Sandrey (132) also lost consolation matches Friday to fall out of the tournament. After falling in the first round Thursday, Beebe answered with a first-round consolation win against Jackson Contreras of Eaton. He was the victor of an 8-2 decision. But in the second consolation round, Beebe was pinned in 44 seconds by Levi Raines of Strasburg to end his tournament.
Sandrey also found a win in the first consolation round after losing his first match Thursday. He beat Alamosa’s Kolten Hillis in an 11-0 major decision.
But Sandrey’s tournament ended with a 7-5 decision loss to Berthoud’s Austyn Binkly.
John Gurule contributed to this report.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
