3A boys wrestling: Manitou Springs’ Terry Lindh has a lonely road to redemption

DENVER – Two years ago, Terry Lindh was a sophomore looking in awe at the Ball Arena floor, amazed the spectacle of state wrestling. A young, relatively inexperienced grappler, he was pinned early in his match and tried to work his way through the consolation bracket, hoping for a medal.

That didn’t go as planned as he lost his second consolation match to Sterling’s Drew Book who went on to place fifth in state in the 220-pound bracket. Still, Lindh thought that his career at Manitou Springs was still young and that he’d get a few chances to do something special at state.

The reduced field of the 2021 tournament limited the chances, not just for Lindh, but for wrestlers all across the state to make their way back to the state tournament. Lindh didn’t qualify and could only hear about how two of his teammates fared in Pueblo.

After finishing third in regionals, Lindh got to take the floor at Ball Arena once again. No longer overwhelmed with the atmosphere at Ball Arena, Lindh battled his way to a 6-2 win over Strasburg’s Jesse Burt in the first round of the 285-pound bracket.

“It felt good,” Lindh said. “I’ve been trying hard to get back to here.”

And his state journey is a lonelier one than he would like. He is the only wrestler from the boys side to qualify for the state. The Mustangs qualified their first girl in school history as Hannah Hollick-Mitchell took fourth at 215 in regionals last weekend. Her ambition of becoming the first girls wrestler for Manitou to win a state title ended in the first round. But there is still so much that she can accomplish for the school.

The same goes for Lindh. He and Hollick-Mitchell are leaning into each other to do something special and try and stand on their respective podiums on Saturday night when the tournament concludes.

“It’s only the two of us,” Lindh said. “All we have is each other and I think that’s enough that we can do it.”

Lindh’s first-round match was a bit of a wakeup call as there were moments that he felt too passive in his strategy. His plan is to breakdown his match and come back to quarterfinals on Friday with a bit of a different approach.

“That guy was pretty good and I was worried a bit going in there,” Lindh said. “He started the aggression in the match and got me in a bad mindset for a second. I won’t make the same mistake again.”