Loaded brackets simply another hurdle on way to wrestling’s championship Saturday
DENVER – Ryan Nordyke and Joseph Prieto spent Friday proving that it doesn’t matter where you start – the finish is what counts in the long run.
The two seniors are both returning state champions – Holly’s Nordyke captured the Class 2A 138-pound title last season and Holy Family’s Prieto did the same in 3A. Yet both wrestlers found themselves without a top-two seed at the 2015 state tournament.
Neither individual took it as a sign of disrespect, though. Instead they made it their mission to take out whoever was in their path and now have the opportunity to end their prep careers with a second consecutive championship.
“It didn’t matter where they put me,” said Nordyke, who posted a 12-6 decision over Paonia’s Gunnar Chesnik in the 145-pound semifinals Friday night at Pepsi Center. “I was going to have a tough run at it – it just didn’t really matter to me.”
Nordyke will meet Meeker’s Anthony Watt for the state championship Saturday night. Watt pinned another former champion, Swink’s Blake Denton, in the quarterfinals before doing the same to Rocky Ford’s Diego Reyes in the semis.
As Nordyke was taking care of business on one end of the floor, Prieto was doing the same on the opposite end.
The Holy Family standout pinned top-seeded Austin Shank of Olathe in three minutes, 34 seconds to advance to the 3A 145-pound finale. Prieto will meet a familiar opponent in Berthoud’s Jimmy Fate, who captured his first championship a year ago in the 4A ranks.
The undefeated Fate posted a 15-8 decision over Prieto in the 3A Region 1 finals last weekend.
“I’m excited. I want revenge,” said Prieto, whose twin brother Julian will wrestle for the 138-pound title. “I want to get the two-time.”
The state tournament yielded four brackets that featured two returning state champions, two each in 3A and 2A. Every classification had its share of “loaded” brackets that included multiple state placers. In 5A’s 138 field, five returning placers did battle, and six state placers from a year ago were in the 4A 145-pound bracket.
Pueblo County sophomore Chris Sandoval – a state runner-up a year ago – found himself in a challenging field in 4A at 126 pounds. Former state champion Josh Villa of Windsor and runner-up Michael Ramirez of Pueblo South were the bracket’s top two seeds; Sandoval was undefeated but had sustained a broken collarbone that kept him out for part of the season.
While both Villa and Ramirez were upset in the quarterfinals, Sandoval score victories by technical fall and pin Friday. He’ll meet Falcon freshman Jacob Butler for the title.
Sandoval said he wasn’t surprised that there were some upsets in the bracket.
“I knew there were other tough kids in there,” Sandoval said. “Anything can happen in wrestling.”
That’s the attitude that both Nordyke and Prieto embraced as well. Prieto said his seeding didn’t come as a surprise after the loss to Fate in the regional, but he also wasn’t concerned with who else was in the bracket or where they were seeded.
“I don’t pay attention to names, I don’t pay attention to records,” he said. “I have the mindset that I’m going to go out there, I’m going to do my best and I’m going to win. Whether that happens or not, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Nordyke, who has been competing with a torn ACL in his right leg that he sustained in December, also wasn’t thinking about facing top seeds or former champions. He said there are no easy brackets, but at the same time, no one is unbeatable.
“Our approach was just take one match at a time,” Holly coach Dean Crum said. “Focus on the person ahead of us and not look at the brackets.”
That mental toughness will be just as important Saturday night against Watt. Nordyke plans to have surgery on his injured leg in early March, but until then will keep pushing through the pain.
“One of my mentors told me it’s just a hurdle. I just have to jump over it,” he said. “I can’t think about that one hurdle all the time, I just have to do whatever it takes to overcome it.”
There are two championship matches Saturday night to feature two former state champions.
One comes in 3A at 132 pounds, where Valley’s Ruben Lucero will face off with Mead’s Sage Budd. The other is also in 3A, at 160, where Weld Central’s Dalton Robertson will face Valley’s Brendan Gonzales.
