Jesse Snider squirmed through his younger brother’s overtime match.
When he saw Jake’s arm raised in victory, Jesse felt a certain lightness and was ready to claim his own, long-awaited state wrestling title.
“I was freaking out during his match,” said Jesse, a senior at Ponderosa. “I was actually way more nervous for his match than I was for my own. After he won, it was a sudden weight off my shoulders. It was great.”
Jake, a freshman, and Jesse Snider became the 19th set of brothers to win state titles the same year, and they did it in front of an announced 18,363 fans who watched the 72nd state wrestling finals Saturday night at the Pepsi Center. The three-day attendance tally was 42,890. Clarence and Harry Terrill of Grand Junction were the first brothers to win in the same season, in 1937, and Cody and Sonny Yohn of Alamosa did it last year and this year.
Joe and Amaedo Silva of Fruita Monument were the only other brothers to accomplish the feat twice, in 1963 and 1964.
The Snider brothers made it a trifecta of sorts as their Ponderosa Mustangs squad won its fifth consecutive Class 5A team title. The Mustangs have crowned 10 individual champ- ions in that time.
Wrestling at 125 pounds, Jake Snider fell behind 1-0 to Centaurus junior Dominic Valenzuela in the second period but tied the score 1-1 to force overtime.
In the extra period, Snider dived in deep for a double-leg and had Valenzuela hovering above the mat, hanging on with all his strength.
Snider pulled his head out from Valenzuela’s grip and was awarded the takedown and victory.
“That was a tough match, but it’s really hard to watch my brother,” Jake Snider (39-8) said.
Jesse Snider (40-3), who has placed second once and third twice at state, came out firing at 145 pounds.
His opponent, Mike Conklin of Fort Collins, beat Snider in the state semifinals last season. Snider got his revenge at the Arvada West tournament earlier in the year, and he jumped all over Conklin for a first-period pin for the championship.
The Snider parents, Melissa and Buster, had a turn mat-side for their boys’ big night. “It was really nerve-wracking. I was so nervous,” Melissa Snider said.
There were others who made the state tournament a family affair. Wasson 135-pounder Casey Cruz capped an undefeated season (40-0) with his first title after placing second as a junior and freshman and fourth as a sophomore. His brother, Jesse, won the 130 title last season.
Pomona’s Nick Jones earned a 5-3 decision over Ponderosa’s Zeke Hofer, 103-pound champion last year, and can now place his trophy next to his brother’s, Noomis.
And Micah Burak of Coronado took the 171-pound title to make it four championships in the Burak family. Brother Gabe won three from 2003-05.
In other big matches, Loveland junior Tyler Graff easily won his third title, this time at 130, and will have a chance to join the elite club of four-time winners. But Graff (47-0) would make no guarantees.
“It’s never a given. You have to earn it all the time,” Graff said. Thornton heavyweight Marcus Felker won his second title in a row. Nick Bauman beat returning state champion Willie McClure of Pomona at 189 to become Legacy’s first title winner.
