3A Boys Wrestling: Eaton Earns State Championship
By Brent New
DENVER — For a year, Eaton’s Paxton Pettinger lived on the wrong side of an unforgettable championship match.
At last winter’s state wrestling tournament, Pettinger couldn’t find an answer as his big lead in the finals disappeared. The closing moment of a season that had gone so right for so much of it found him on his back, pinned with 22 seconds remaining.
He got the ending right this weekend.
And so did his team.
Following a second-place finish he’d rather forget, Pettinger was one of three individual champions for the Reds on Saturday at Ball Arena, lifting Eaton to its fourth team title since 2020.
For his part, Pettinger dethroned defending champ Austin Ley of Brush at 3A 165 pounds, beating him in a 2-1 decision. After he was unable to hold onto a 7-1 lead in the 157-pound championship last year, he scored a two-point reversal for the match’s first points with 32 seconds remaining. And this time, he finished.
“Last year left a really sour taste in my mouth,” Pettinger said. “I never wanted to feel that feeling ever again. So, I started training hard and just did the right things. I knew I had to commit to go get it done.”
Blake Hawkins, meanwhile, won his second straight title for the Reds, beating Fort Lupton’s Isaiah Rodriguez by a 7-0 decision in the 120-pound final. He won at 113 pounds last year, while grad Cal Sidwell won at 190 and the Reds took third as a team.
Freshman Parker Wickam was the Reds’ other winner Saturday, beating Bennett’s Caycen Scholz by an 8-2 decision at 132 pounds. Wickam had one of the more dominant seasons by a freshman this season, finishing 37-3. His lone in-state loss came to Cherokee Trail’s Cooper Mathews, who won that weight class in 5A.
Eaton came into the final day of the tournament with a lead in the 3A team standings, though it wasn’t insurmountable with both Fort Lupton and Alamosa in the rearview mirror.
“I knew our team could pull it off if our people on the backside could really pull through,” Wickam said. “We got some big wins (in consolations) and so that sealed it off for us and allowed us to wrestle freely in the finals.”
The Reds won with 149 points. They had seven wrestlers make the podium, with Braxton Smith (113), Louden Kindsfater (126) and Dylan Paris (144) each taking bronze. Ethan Deal (138) took fifth.
Alamosa took second with 119.5 points, led by title wins from Jeremiah DeLaCerda (106) and Uriah Martinez (138). Fort Lupton was third with 100.
Brush’s Ritchie Bruno ended his high school career by winning his third state title. Jordan Romero (106) of Abraham Lincoln, Isaiah Gallegos (150) of Jefferson, Samuel Johnson (157) of Salida, Isaak Chavez (175) of Mullen and Samuel Stockton (285) of Resurrection Christian all won a second straight title. Stockton finished the second undefeated.
Bruno beat Mullen’s Estevan Loya by a 7-2 decision in the finals.
“We have a small town and still have a huge (cheering) section here,” Bruno said. “It’s really nice to make them proud.”
