CHSAA Crowns a Quartet of Four-Time Wrestling State Champions

DENVER – With history teetering on the edge of falling, Ball Arena had the opportunity to bear witness to something that had never been done. 

Thanks to Persaeus Gomez from Pomona High School and Ciara Monger from Calhan High School, the Colorado High School Activities Association was able to crown its first-ever four-time state champions in girls wrestling (wrestling became a CHSAA-sanctioned sport in 2010-11).

For Gomez, being the first to ever do so means the world to her. Not just for the awards and recognition, but also the opportunity to inspire a next generation of great girls wrestlers. 

“It’s awesome knowing that I can be that person that they can look up to,” Gomez said, who won at 130 pounds. “Growing up I didn’t have as many female athletes to look up to, I didn’t even have the support as much. I was constantly told I shouldn’t wrestle, or that: ‘it’s a boys sport… why are you even doing it? Go dance, or go do something else.’ So I think that being a trailblazer myself, … it’s pretty cool knowing that the next generation can look up to me and that they can have goals as big as mine.”

Gomez now stands tall over anyone who doubted her throughout her career, having never lost a match in Colorado. 

As she battles those bittersweet feelings of this being her last state championship, the excitement of going on to Oklahoma State sits more on the sweet side. 

“It’s extremely bittersweet,” Gomez said. “All of my teammates, everything, all of the memories I’ve made within the Pomona community; I feel like they’ve played a big part in my success, as well. So It’s sad leaving them, but I’m really excited for the next step and to see how far I can go.”

Watch Gomez’s championship match:

 

Monger herself confirmed her commitment to wrestle at the next level, as Fort Hays State University in Kansas now gets to be a part of history. 

Alhough, while there will be time to celebrate Monger becoming a Tiger, Saturday night was all about where her hard work and dedication took her. 

“I’m excited, I’m really shaky right now, but I’m excited,” Monger said after winning the 235 pound title. “All of the work the last 14 years has paid off and it’s just a great experience. Getting to just be here is amazing.”

That celebration means a lot and like so many other of the four-time champions, Monger took pride in representing where she came from. 

Calhan is undoubtedly proud of its very own trailblazer. 

“That was my main point of this,” Monger said. “My main excitement about winning four was for the history and showing the younger generation that they can do this. And show them that it’s going to be hard, but as long as you keep doing what you’re doing, you can do it.”

Watch Monger’s championship match:

CHSAA also crowned two more four-time champions in the boy’s division, bringing the total number of four-time champions up to 34 all time. 

Dale O’Blia from Mullen High School was the first of the four-time champions today, winning the 120 pound weight class. 

This is O’Blia’s first year competing in the 120 weight class. In each of the last three years, he won weighing in at 113 pounds in 2023 and 106 pounds in both 2022 and 2021. 

Four-time means something special for everyone, but those honors are something that has been on the mind of O’Blia for a long time.

“As a little kid this is what I’ve always dreamed of,” O’Blia said. “I’ve always dreamed of trying to achieve four. As soon as I won the first one my freshman year, I knew this was a goal that I could accomplish and I knew if I just set my mind to it I could do it.”

Prior to the first match, a video of previous four-time champions played for Ball Arena to watch. 

Part of the pool of previous four timers was Daniel Cardenas, someone who O’Blia called family. Now, he follows Cardenas as one of the greatest to ever do it.

“It’s such a great accomplishment,” O’Blia said. “Just all the people before me, I looked up to them. The last one was Daniel Cardenas, he was like an older brother to me. He was one of my role models growing up.”

O’Blia will join Cardenas in the DI wrestling ranks. Cardenas wrestles for Stanford, while O’Blia confirmed his plans to wrestle for Princeton next season.

Watch O’Blia’s championship match:

The next four-time champion to be crowned was Fort Lupton High School’s D’mitri Garza-Alarcon. He won his first state title at 126 pounds and the following three at 138 pounds.

Garza-Alarcon wrestled to make history, and he did just that, becoming the first wrestler from Fort Lupton to four peat. 

“There’s a couple of three timers that we have,” Garza-Alarcon said. “But what I wanted to do when I came in was to make history… and that’s what I did.”

After his win, Garza-Alarcon said he found and pointed to his mom first, who has been so crucial for him in his journey.

While he was animated post match, doing back flips and hyping up the crowd, becoming a four-time champion hasn’t quite sunk in, yet.

“Honestly it hasn’t hit me yet,” Garza-Alarcon said. “It’s still sitting back there lingering until I step upstairs and everybody’s just crowded around me.”

Watch Garza-Alarcon’s championship match: