Thornton – Marcus Felker is a big dude. A little too big (for now), even when talking about heavyweight wrestlers, a group of dudes known for their bigness.
While the Class 5A defending heavyweight state champion continues to shed a few (dozen) extra pounds that helped him push people around on the football field, Thornton’s wrestling team turned to Plan B.
Actually, call it Plan 1A.
Josh Tashiro, who battles Felker on a daily basis in practice, stepped in and pinned all three of his opponents Saturday at the Front Range League dual wrestling tournament at Horizon High School.
“We wrestle off every week and whoever is the best that day gets the match. When we go at it, those are tough. They go all three periods and come down to a couple points,” Tashiro said.
Tashiro, who has been shut out by Felker in the wrestle-offs since the first week of last season, ended his day by pinning Loveland’s Leo Gerhard in 46 seconds. Though it took less than a minute, that match and the entire day seemed a lot longer to Felker, who was relegated to watching the action from the side of the mat.
“I hate sitting out here watching instead of wrestling,” said Felker, who has orally committed to play football at Wyoming. “It gets harder and harder every year to drop weight, but I’ll be ready next week. I’m only 4 pounds away.”
Felker ended the football season weighing 323 pounds, 38 over the heavyweight cutoff of 285. Tashiro, meanwhile, weighed in at 282, and the senior was the day’s biggest highlight for Trojans at the nine-team tournament that was controlled by Legacy. The Lightning won all four of their duals, with Chris Cruickshank sweeping his matches at 125 pounds.
Two-time state champion Tyler Graff of Loveland won his three matches at 130 pounds with pins, and the serious look on his face afterward showed that even a relatively easy weekend was enough to get his competitive fires burning.
“It’s just another match, and all these things are preparation for the bigger tournaments. In April I have nationals. That’s the main thing on my mind, but I take every match and every opponent seriously,” Graff said.
Don’t worry. Graff, a junior who placed fourth at the under-20 national tournament last year, also is thinking about a third, and possibly a fourth, state title.
“State’s on my mind, as well,” he said.
In other action, Northglenn, paced by Lorenzo Garcia’s four victories, won three duals and lost a close one to Rocky Mountain. Poudre won three of its five duals as 119-pounder Aaron Nelson and 160-pounder Brandon Doyle went undefeated.
“Dual tournaments like this help teach them how to rise up every match and keep it there, wrestle as hard as they can every match no matter who their opponent is. And it’s good for some of the weaker guys, too. In a regular tournament they might go 0-2 and be done for the day, but here everybody wrestles five times,” Poudre coach Bart Golyer said.
