WESTMINSTER — Jessie Hoffschneider had a lot of help on the mat Saturday night at the Class 5A Region 2 championships at Westminster High School.
The Grand Junction junior wears three tattoos — a tribal cross on his left shoulder in honor of a pair of family members who’ve passed away, so that he can have them with him on the mat; another tribal cross over his right pec representing a Bible verse; and a tattoo on his back with a nickname given to him by a former football coach.
But with the way he’s been wrestling this season, and in particular this weekend, he doesn’t need much help. He’s doing just fine on his own.
The only wrestler to come into the regional undefeated left that way after four straight victories, culminating with a 9-1 decision of Pomona’s Darrick Chavez in the championship match at 145 pounds.
“Coming in, I didn’t feel like I had any pressure. I just felt like I had to wrestle every match as hard as I can, to take the next guy that I was going to wrestle no matter what his record is, no matter how bad I beat him the last time. I had to make it my toughest match,” said Hoffschneider, who improved to 42-0 a year after finishing second at region and state.
His win was one of three titles by Grand Junction en route to 140 1/2 points and a fourth-place finish in the team standings. Pomona, with six championships in eight finals, won team honors with 270 points. The Panthers qualified 11 wrestlers for the 5A state tournament, scheduled for Feb. 17-19 at the Pepsi Center.
Rocky Mountain was second with 174 points and Grand Junction-Central third with 151.
“I feel pretty good about where we’re at right now. We’re taking 11 kids downtown. I can’t ask for much more than that,” Pomona coach Pat DeCamillis said. “Coming into it, we thought maybe we’d get as many as 12, as little as 10. Eleven is right in the middle. We’ll take it.”
Winning championships for Pomona were Josh Rosales (103), Lucas Vagher (112), Eli Rosales (125), Ray Robledo (130), Justin Frazer (152) and Michael Gomez (189). But the Panthers aren’t satisfied.
“We can always improve. Two, three days of practice this week. It’s time to go still,” Vagher said. “We can still learn what we need to do. This is just showing us little last-minute things we need to fix so we can get perfect at state.”
