FORT LUPTON — The stationary bike Dale Shull rides Tuesday is anything but.
With exaggerated concentration, the 130-pound senior pedals hard enough that the bike hops across the concrete floor of the Blue Devils’ wrestling room and threatens to explode in a cloud of metal.
This is after Shull couldn’t stop laughing while being attacked by 103-pound teammate Anthony Deleon, and before he gave up the bike and ran around the blue mats in jagged bursts of speed.
“I do a lot of random things,” Shull says before trying to give examples beyond his love of watching cartoons. “I don’t know . . . I can’t even tell you what I did today.”
What Shull does Saturday is more important.
Lanky, unusually flexible and unorthodox in style, Shull is expected to compete for his third Class 4A state title at the Pepsi Center. With a victory in the finals, Shull (151-9 in his prep career) would become just the fifth three-timer at Fort Lupton, a town steeped in wrestling tradition.
A veteran of preparation, Shull admits things are different this week. Roosevelt senior and two-time champion Dan Frank also is expected to make the 130-pound final, and Frank already defeated an in-form Shull this season.
“This is the first time I have another defending state champion in my bracket,” Shull said. “Before, it was all people I had beaten. Now, it’s someone I’ve lost to.”
Then there’s the gnawing emptiness of Shull’s “wasted” sophomore season, when he lost the 112-pound championship 12-10 in overtime to Pueblo West’s Victor Sanchez after entering the third period leading 10-2.
“It still eats at me today. It does,” Shull said. “Since sixth grade that was my goal: to be Fort Lupton’s first four-timer. Last year, when I did take state, I felt redeemed for about three days. Then I looked on my wall where my brackets are, and there is an empty space where my sophomore year should have been. Three days later I wasn’t redeemed anymore, and it’s been eating at me since.”
The battles Shull has with himself are greater than any opponent. When he was in grade school, he won every match when scoring first, and lost every match when giving up the first points. He finally overcame that extreme as a freshman, when he went 37-0 and won the 103-pound title.
His habit of doing the unexpected — rolling, flipping, scrambling and grabbing at times and at places no coach would teach — is one of his greatest strengths and weaknesses. Combine that with any frustrations, and he can find himself wearing a singlet of kryptonite — such as in that loss to Sanchez.
“He let his young mind get away from him,” said Blue Devils coach Tommy Galicia, who graduated from Fort Lupton and has coached for 13 years. “When he was up 10-2, he thought he could just take in the atmosphere.”
Shull, 37-3 this season, is now more about rituals and reads. He prepares for every final with a routine of pacing, music such as DragonForce (imagine Iron Maiden after a Red Bull binge) and getting dressed in a certain order.
“I want to leave with a bang,” he said.
