Alex Peña’s quest to become Colorado’s 17th four-time champion is intact. Peña, wrestling at 126 pounds for Class 2A Ignacio, pinned Edwards Galarza of Byers in 55 seconds to open the tournament. Peña is 31-2 this season.
Peña will face Paonia’s Cody Clawson (19-14) today. Clawson pinned Rocky Ford’s Julian Medina on Thursday.
Peña won titles at 112 pounds last season and as a freshman. He won at 119 as a sophomore.
Quick pins of the day. Some visits to the Pepsi Center floor last longer than others. Holyoke’s 170-pound senior, Broc Pelle, was on the mat for all of 15 seconds against Kiowa’s Jesse Evans. Pelle’s 15-second pin of Evans was the fastest of the early session.
Holy Family’s Daniel Jansen had the second-fastest pin, downing Cedaredge’s Ely Fritchman in 19 seconds.
In 4A, Valor Christian’s Cody Weitzel needed 25 seconds to pin Ridge View Academy’s Estevan Taulli.
Class 5A’s fastest pin went to Greeley West’s Austin Waterman, who pinned Brian Mayberry of Columbine in 1:11.
Byes pile up in 4A, 5A. After getting through the morning session without any byes, there were five byes in the 4A and 5A tournaments.
Failing to make weight were Rocky Mountain’s Kyler Schmidt (106 pounds) in 5A, and a pair of Roosevelt teammates in 4A: Dakota Swafford (113) and Adam Cary (132).
Legacy’s Connor Casady (160) pulled out because of illness, and an injury held Chatfield’s Cory Cordova (182) out. Both were competing in 5A.
Team score update. Pine Creek seized the first-day 5A team lead with 22.5 points. Pomona (19.5) and Fountain-Fort Carson (18.5) trailed.
Windsor holds a 28.5-21.5 lead over Thompson Valley in 4A, with Pueblo South at 21.
Alamosa leads 3A with 28.5 points. Olathe (24.5) was just behind, followed by Holy Family (20).
In 2A, Paonia owned a bigger edge with 38.5 points to second-place Rocky Ford’s 26. Fowler and Yuma were in a third-place tie with 22 points.
Not just for the boys. The 77th annual state grappling session welcomed two girls. In 3A, Grand Valley’s Cody Pfau came in with a 29-9 record, but her bid at a state championship came to an end in the second period of her opening match to Florence’s Caleb Cole at 106 pounds.
Cole, a sophomore, carried a 4-0 lead into the second period and another takedown made it 6-0 before he cradeled Pfau into a spot from which she couldn’t escape. The pin came at 2 minutes, 55 seconds.
In 2A, Soroco’s Lauryn Bruggink — who made her state tournament debut in 2010 — was also pinned in her first-round match against Burlington’s Daniel Walsh.
Summit duo out early. Summit duo out early. Summit’s Nick Wittrock lost via technical fall to to Windsor’s Jonathan Lewis, 17-1, in his first-round match at 106 pounds.
Wittrock is one of two wrestlers representing the school at the 4A state tournament. Together with Jonathan Ramirez, Wittrock is honoring the memory of teammate Tristan White, who died this month after collapsing in the team’s wrestling room.
Ramirez, who wrestles at 170 pounds, lost his bout on a 7-2 decision a few hours later.
Defending champs advance. Every defending champion in all four classifications moved on to Round 2.
— Ryan Casey, Jon E. Yunt and Neil H. Devlin, The Denver Post
