Rick Gallegos and his 15-year-old, Ryan, shared an embrace that can only be described as one of those father-son moments. The only difference was that all of Grand Valley High School bonded with them as well.
The bittersweet emotion wasn’t the happy ending they had hoped for, as evident by the disappointing look in their eyes after Ryan’s 4-2 loss to Nucla’s Ty Sickels in Class 2A’s 130-pound final. But the bigger prize awarded later in the night more than made up for it.
The Cardinals ventured into uncharted territory Saturday night, winning the 2A state wrestling team championship for the first time, outscoring second-place Paonia 146-113 at the Pepsi Center. Wiggins was third with 105 points. Burlington (90) and Norwood (83) rounded out the top five.
Grand Valley had never won a team, nor individual, wrestling title before Saturday night. Now it has both. Brothers Tyler and Cody Miles provided Grand Valley with individual success, winning state championships at 152 and 160 pounds, respectively.
“It’s been a (heck) of a weekend,” Grand Valley head coach Rick Gallegos said. “I couldn’t ask them to do a better job.”
The Cardinals’ previous best finish was 12th. That was last year. But in 2008, nobody would come between Grand Valley and state supremacy.
Grand Valley led Wiggins by 11 points after Thursday’s first round and Paonia by 30 after day two. The Cardinals, who sent 10 wrestlers to state — including three regional champions — had the team title all but officially locked up after placing five wrestlers into Saturday’s consolation rounds.
So the state finals were all about individual success for Grand Valley. Ryan Gallegos was up first and, despite his best effort, he couldn’t overcome an early 4-0 deficit. But according to his father and coach, the loss did little to spoil the season Ryan had.
“I just told the kid to hold his head up. He had a (heck) of a season,” the fifth-year coach said of his son. “Ryan, by going to the final match, scored a lot of points for us.”
Tyler and Cody Miles also scored for Grand Valley, and they added a pair of individual state titles to boot.
Tyler (35-4), at 152 pounds, rallied from behind for a 9-6 decision of Nick Segura (34-4) of Dolores Huerta. Cody (39-3) then overpowered Brogan Walters of Crowley County 11-4 at 160. Tyler said he knew his back was against the wall, but he never wavered.
“I knew I was down, but if I did my hardest the whole time I knew that would come out on top,” Tyler Miles said.
Class 2A
Team scores — Grand Valley 146, Paonia 113, Wiggins 105, Burlington 90, Norwood 83, Dolores Huerta 79 1/2, Rangely 73, Rocky Ford 60.5, Akron 60, Holyoke 59 1/2, Wray 54, Soroco 53, Stratton 50, Discovery Canyon 49, Dove Creek 48, Nucla 45, John Mall 40.5, Dolores 38, Crowley County 37, Meeker 36, Eads 36, Lyons 35, Merino 32.5, Holly 30, Sedgwick County 29, Antonito 27, Byers 26.5, Hilltop Baptist 25, Simla 25, Fowler 24, Hayden 23, Del Norte 16, Las Animas 12, Center 11, Fleming 7.5, La Veta 7, Colorado D&B 7, Baca County 6, Sargent 4, North Park 3, Limon 3, Calhan 3, Manzanola 3, Swink 3, Cheyenne Wells 2, Mountain Valley 1, Mancos 0, West Grand 0, Centennial 0, Creede 0, Cripple Creek 0, Custer County 0, Sanford 0, Sangre De Cristo 0, South Park 0, Genoa-Hugo 0, Gilpin County 0, Hanover 0, Fountain Valley 0, Kiowa 0.
103 pounds — David Garcia, Rocky Ford, Sr. (39-2), dec. Devon Rose, Rangely, So. (37-3), 4-0.
112 — Nick Adams, Discovery Canyon, Fr. (31-3), dec. Justin Iacovetto, Sorocco, Jr. (26-1), 6-5.
119 — Chad Stroh, Holyoke, So. (36-1), dec. Ethan Kinner, Hilltop Baptist, Jr. (37-5), 9-7.
125 — Chris Gebauer, Akron, Sr. (31-1), dec. Brett Brunner, Dolores, Jr. (42-6), 7-4.
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. (32-2), 7-2.
140 — Hugh Hardman, Norwood, Jr. (41-1), pinned Tyler Eberhardt, Lyons, Sr. (25-3), 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. (33-5), 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.
Hwt. — Bryan Crespin, John Mall, Sr. (35-2), dec. Kyle Pollock, Wiggins, So. (23-4), 5-1.
