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Grand Valley takes 2A wrestling crown

By Tracy Renck, Special to the Rocky

Published February 23, 2008 at 11:14 p.m.

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The impossible became possible for the Grand Valley High School wrestling program Saturday.

The Cardinals won the school's inaugural state wrestling championship when they ran away with the Class 2A crown at the Pepsi Center. Grand Valley placed seven wrestlers and collected 146 points. Paonia, the Cardinals' Western Slope rival, came in second with 113 points, followed by Wiggins (105).

Grand Valley was so dominant it won the team chase in Saturday's consolation round.

"I can't believe it," said Grand Valley coach Rick Gallegos, whose program only had five state placers in its history before this year. "It's hard to digest."

Gallegos' disbelief is understandable.

The Cardinals best finish at the state wrestling tournament was 12th and that was last year.

The championship is more remarkable, considering Gallegos started the Grand Valley High School wrestling program five years ago when the school opened in Parachute.

"I began coaching the kids on this team 13 years ago when they were in pee wee wrestling," Gallegos said. "I never dreamed of being a high school coach, but as I saw these boys grow up, I thought I would do it and I received great support from our athletic director Jeff Bradley. We had dreams of just qualifying for state, but as we got better that wasn't enough. I just have an awesome bunch of boys who would run through walls for me and they derserve this championship."

The Cardinals were paced by champions, sophomore Tyler Miles (152) and senior Cody Miles (160), who are brothers.

"It feels great to win the team title and to be a state champ myself," said Tyler who upended Dolores Huerta's Nick Segura 9-6 by collecting three near fall points as time expired in the third period.

"I just did what Coach Gallegos has taught us to do and I rolled him over to his back."

The Miles brothers made history as they became the first wrestlers competing for Grand Valley to win individual titles.

"Once we wrapped up the team title, that took a lot of pressure off of me," Cody said. "We wanted to win state for Coach Gallegos and once we did that, I just wanted to go out there and wrestle my match. I was really motivated to win after I saw Tyler get that victory."

Sophomore Ryan Gallegos, the coach's son, lost in the finals 4-2 to Nucla's Ty Sickels at 130-pounds. Ryan has been a state runner-up two years in a row as he lost 15-2 to Antonito's Daniel Espinoza at 119 pounds last season.

"Ryan had a heck of a season and he just came up a little short, but he will be back," Coach Gallegos said. "It's amazing to have Tyler and Cody win because they're like sons to me. What a weekend this has been."

Sickels was thrilled to walk away with a gold medal.

"This is the only goal I've set in my life (to be a state champion) and it feels awesome to reach that goal,"Sickels said.

The Cardinals' James Drinkhouse (125) and Jared Tonder (135) were both third and Jerrod Busch (119) and Matt Cain (140) each placed sixth.

Grand Valley will not defend its 2A title next year as the school is moving up to compete at the Class 3A level in 2008-09.

Paonia had Justin Smith (145) and Devon Brown (171) win gold medals.

"It feel great to take state," said Smith, who defeated Meeker's Josh Prescott 9-3. "I had a 2-1 record against him before state, but he beat me in regionals and I wasn't about to let that happen again."

Paonia's Lukas Wiggins (130) was third and KC Martin (152) and heavyweight John Hinton were both fifth.

Individually, Norwood junior Stryker Lane won his second-consecutive crown when he pinned Burlington's Isaiah Churchwellat the 1:42 mark in the 215-pound finals.

Lane won his first title last year at 189 pounds with Nucla. Tucker Lane, Stryker's older brother, captured three state titles at Nucla, the last coming in 2007 at 285 pounds.

"It felt good to go out there and dominate and it's great to be a state champion again," Stryker said.

Hugh Hardman, Stryker's teammate, also won his second title in a row by pinning Tyler Eberhardt of Lyons at 140 pounds at the 1:36 mark. Hardman, a junior, had a 41-1 record.

"It's hard winning a second title because there's a target on your back," Hardman said. "Every guy knows who you are and if you don't go out there and wrestle your best, you will get beat. I felt totally prepared for this match and I knew it was going to be mine."

Soroco's Justin Iacovetto tried to end his season with a perfect 27-0 record and a 112-pound championship, but he was derailed by Discovery Canyon freshman Nick Adams 6-5 in the finals. Adams is the first state champion at Discovery Canyon as the school just opened up this year in Colorado Springs.

"It feel great to be a state champion and I can't even put into words what it means to be the first state champ in school history," said Adams, who registered a takedown at the 1:12 mark in the third and held on for the victory.

Dove Creek's Colten Huskey also made it to the top of the podium for the first time by edging Rangely's Travis Witherell 7-2 in the 135-pound finals.

"I'm feel really good right now and very excited," said the junior, who was pinned by Jake Harris of Dolores in last year's 135-pound state championship bout. "After what happened to me last year (in the finals) I was pretty down. I just kept working hard to come out and win state and I'm so happy I did it."

Class 2A championships

103: David Garcia, Rocky Ford, sr. (39-2) dec. Devon Rose Rangely,

so. (37-4), 4-0

112: Nick Adams, Discovery Canyon, fr. (31-3) dec. Justin Iacovetto,

Soroco, jr. (26-1), 6-5

119: Chad Stroh, Holyoke, so. (36-1) vs. Ethan Kinner, Hilltop

Baptist, jr. (37-5), 9-7

125: Chris Gebauer, Akron, sr. (31-1) dec. Brett Brunner, Dolores,

jr. (42-6), 7-5

130: Ty Sickels, Nucla, jr. (35-10) dec. Ryan Gallegos, Grand Valley,

so. (35-10), 4-2

135: Colten Huskey, Dove Creek, jr. (36-1) dec. Travis Witherell,

Rangely, so., (32-11), 7-2

140: Hugh Hardman, Norwood, jr. (41-1) pinned Tyler Eberhardt, Lyons,

sr. (25-2), 1:36

145: Justin Smith, Paonia, so. (35-7) dec. Josh Prescott, Meeker, sr.

(32-10), 9-3

152: Tyler Miles, Grand Valley, so. (35-4) dec. Nick Segura, Dolores

Huerta, sr. (34-4), 9-6

160: Cody Miles, Grand Valley, sr. (39-3) dec. Brogan Walters,

Crowley County, sr. (35-3), 11-4

171: Devon Brown, Paonia, sr. (37-1) dec. Nick Halcomb, Rangely, sr.

(29-7), 9-6

189: Mike Satterly, Burlington, so. (32-5) dec. Dennis Morgan,

Soroco, sr. (29-6), 5-0

215: Stryker Lane, Norwood, jr. (20-0) pinned Isaiah Churchwell,

Burlington, so. (29-11), 1:42

285: Bryan Crespin, John Mall, sr. (35-2), dec. Kyle Pollock,

Wiggins, so. (23-4), 5-1

Third place

103: Devan Hase, Merino, dec. Todd Richardson, Dolores Huerta, 4-1

112: Edwin Cruz, Del Norte, dec. Buddy Watson, Wiggins, 3-2

119: Tommy George, Discovery Canyon, dec. Bon Kinder, Burlington,

7-6 (OT)

125: James Drinkhouse, Grand Valley, pinned Levi Gonzales, Soroco,

4:28

130: Lukas Wiggins, Paonia, pinned Cameron Penny, Burlington, 3:57

135: Jared Tonder, Grand Valley, pinned Donnie White, Fowler, 2:56

140: Michael Hamacher, Simla, dec. Zach Goldsberry, Las Animas, 8-4

145: Daniel Coffey, Lyons, dec.Matt Harmon, Rocky Ford, 3-2 (OT)

152: Adam Erker, Wiggins, dec. Mikey Lozano, Holly, 7-4

160: Jake Schroeder, Wiggins, major dec. David Brachtenbach,

Stratton, 10-0

171: Mario Garcia, Dolores Huerta, dec. Benj Vigil, Akron, 7-1

189: Steven Turecek, Byers, dec. Garrett Smith, Eads, 4-3

215: Christian Hornung, Stratton, pinned Reed Jablonski, Sedgewick

County, 1:54

285: Jeremy Lund, Wray, pinned Darrel Jensen, Norwood, 1:25

Fifth place

103: Jeff Brown, Discovery Canyon, dec. Andrfew Murphy, Burlington,

6-2

112: Garrison Ortiz, Dolores Huerta, dec. Trevor Herrick, Sedgewick

County, 5-3

119: Carlos Valverde, Dolores Huerta, major dec. Jerrod Busch, Grand

Valley, 9-0

125: J.R. McDonald, Fowler, dec. Jon Duran, Antonito, 9-5

130: John Sparks, Dove Creek, pinned Bryan Hamacher, Simla, 2:39

135: Javier Garcia, Wray, dec. Jonathan Aguirre, 11-9

140: Jon Reid, Akron, dec. Matt Cain, Grand Valley, 3-0

145: Mitch Doolin, Hayden, dec. Byron Davis, Stratton, 5-2

152: KC Marftin Paonia, pinned Andrew Abeyta, Antonito, 4:32

160: Josh Galloway, Dolores, major dec. Austin Adamson, Eads, 13-5

171: Tyler Davis, Wiggins, pinned Ty Spangler, Nucla, 2:03

189: Coy Letlow, Hayden, dec. Paul Campfield, Wray, 6-4

215: Levi Garrett, Holyoke, pinned Carlos Lopez, Center, 4:00

285: John Hinton, Paonia, dec. Bill Gray, Crowley County, 7-5