Glenwood Springs senior Amos Wilson gave his all for a chance to wrestle for a state championship, but came out on the losing side of a 4-2 decision in his 3A 182-pound semifinal bout against Fort Morgan’s Brian Paxton Friday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
“He went up there against a tough kid and battled, and was up a couple of shots in the first period, but wasn’t able to finish,” Demons coach Miles Cook said after the match.
A neutral second period led to a couple more chances for take-downs in the third, but again Wilson couldn’t get the pin. A medical time-out for Paxton halted what Cook said was his star wrestler’s best chance to get the job done.
Another take-down attempt by Wilson later in the period was ruled out of bounds. “That was pretty much the last gasp,” Cook said.
That would have tied the match 3-3, but instead Paxton was given the point, and Wilson was sent to the consolation bracket with a chance still to earn third place on Saturday.
Earlier in the day Friday, Wilson won his quarterfinal match by a 5-4 decision over Braden Baumgartner of Weld Central.
Also dropping his championship semifinal Friday night was Grand Valley heavyweight (285 pounds) Hayden Grice, who was pinned in 1:22 in his match by University’s Emanuel Munoz-Alcala. Earlier in the day, Grice pinned Carlos Flores of Alameda in 4:38 to advance to the semifinal.
Grice also will have a chance at some redemption when he returns to the mat Saturday in the consolation semifinals.
Three other area wrestlers are still alive in the consolation bracket, including Cauy Smith of Rifle at 126 pounds. After a hard-fought quarterfinal loss to Matthew Villarreal of Weld Central, who earned the pin in 5:22, Smith came back to pin Trevor Maestas of Alamosa in 2:05.
Basalt’s Ruben Samuelson (170) and Ernesto Lopez (285) also lost their quarterfinal matches, but came back to win in consolation Friday night to stay alive another day.
Winners of the consolation semifinals wrestle back for a shot at third place, and the loser of those matches wrestles for fifth.
Bowing out of the competition on Friday were Glenwood’s Erik Krauth (138); Talon Cordova (132), Dillon Tiffany (160), Alex Guardado (195), Hunter Bercher (106), Bryce Rowley (138) and Alejandro Robles (285) of Rifle; and Conrad Demann (152) and Hector De la Cruz of Grand Valley.
Other Friday results:
106: Will Moneypenny (Berthoud) pinned Hunter Bercher (Rifle), 0:45
126: Matthew Villarreal (Weld Central) pinned Cauy Smith (Rifle) in 5:22; Smith pinned Trevor Maestas (Alamosa) in 2:05.
132: Talon Cordova (Rifle) over Brendan Jones (Fort Morgan), 11-7; Noah Damian (Valley) over Cordova, 5-1.
138: Jose Campos (Jefferson) over Erik Krauth (Glenwood Springs), 3-2; Matt Pecina (Fort Morgan) over Bryce Rowley (Rifle), 4-2.
152: John Sumner (Mullen) over Conrad Demann (Grand Valley), 6-4; Kolton Robertson (Weld Central) over Demann, 11-5.
160: Dillon Tiffany (Rifle) over Adam Gamer (Woodland Park), 11-6; Dustin Clark (Pagosa Springs) over Tiffany, 9-7.
170: Cole Gray (Woodland Park) pinned Ruben Samuelson (Basalt) in 3:08; Samuelson pinned Koby Ullery (Elizabeth) in 0:31.
195: Alex Guardado (Rifle) pinned Tanner Eide (Classical Academy) in 1:55; Casey Harvey (Bennett) pinned Guardado in 0:49.
285: Tanner True (Eaton) pinned Ernesto Lopez (Basalt) in 4:57; Lopez pinned Kyle Good (James Erwin) in 2:19; Kane Fobare (Weld Central) over Alejandro Robles (Rifle), 8-4.
