It was a challenging time for the Yuma High School wrestlers at the CHSAA State Wrestling Championships held last week at Ball Arena in Denver.
Two of the five wrestlers made it to Saturday, Trey Stegman and Gese Sanchez, and Sanchez ended up being the only one to place.
The boys team sent Stegman to state at 157 and Daden Beauprez at 175 in Class 2A.
Meeker won the team title with 150 points, edging Cedaredge in second at 145. Wray was third with 129. Yuma finished with eight points.
Stegman had an exciting start to his third appearance in state. The senior trailed Crowley County’s Aidan Holloran 7-4 in the third period of their preliminary round match Thursday afternoon. However, Stegman rallied late and earned a near fall right before the buzzer to pull out an 8-7 win.
That sent him into the championship quarterfinals Thursday morning against Buena Vista’s Colton Montoya, where he lost by a 4-0 decision. Stegman kept his hopes of placing alive later in the day in the consolation second round, where he won by fall (2 minutes, 59 seconds) over Meeker’s Orion Musser.
However, he came up short of reaching the medal rounds as he lost Saturday morning by major decision to Ethan Toothaker of Cedaredge in the consolation second round.
Stegman finished his senior year with a 31-9 record and his career with more than 100 wins.
Beauprez ran into a top seed at 175 in the preliminaries on Thursday. Mancos’ Cole Dainty-Guilfoyle pinned the sophomore in 3:19. Beauprez rebounded Friday with a win by fall (4:24) over Hayden’s Logan Silva in the consolation first round. He was knocked out later in the day with a 7-0 loss to Byers’ Kaiden Powell in the consolation second round. Beauprez finished his season with a 20-12 record.
“It didn’t go the way we wanted but it was a good weekend,” head coach Presley Papachek said. “Stegman fell short of making the podium which was our goal, same with Beauprez, but he was able to get some valuable experience. It was definitely a year of gaining experience and I think this could be a tough group in the coming years.”
The girls team sent three to state, and Sanchez came home with the sixth-place medal at 170 pounds. Chloe Smith also earned one win, as Yuma finished with 11 points.
Pomona won the girls team title with 135.5 points, edging out Grand Junction Central with 129.
Colorado high school girls wrestling will expand to two classifications beginning next season.
Sanchez made a surprise run to the semifinals. She opened state Thursday afternoon with a 7-3 decision over Palmer Ridge’s Sakari David.
The sophomore returned the next morning for the championship quarterfinals, where she battled for a win by fall (5:08) over Jzunie Jones of Mullen.
That sent her into the semifinals on Friday night, and assured her of coming home with a medal. She was quickly pinned in her semifinal by Matilda Hruby of Brighton.
She then lost in the consolation semifinals to Sicily Frates of Pomona. That put Sanchez into the fifth-place match, where she again met Jones. It was a great battle but Sanchez lost an 8-6 decision to finish sixth.
Sanchez finished with a 34-17 record.
Smith opened the tournament with a 5-1 decision at 105 pounds over Gia Gabel of Discovery Canyon. That put her into the championship quarterfinals Friday morning, where she lost an 8-0 decision to Acelyn Duran of Pueblo Central. She was back on the mat later in the day for the consolation second round, losing by fall to Regis Jesuit’s Remington Zimmerer.
Smith finished with a 40-11 record.
Taelynn Robinson competed at 100 pounds. The freshman was pinned in her first match on Thursday, then was pinned again Friday in the consolation first round. She finished with a 23-19 record.