COLORADO SPRINGS – Last year, there was a certain element of on-the-fly learning for the Cheyenne Mountain boys wrestling team.
The adjusted schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the team facing off in only duals and no big invite tournaments. The first tournament atmosphere they entered was the same as everyone else: regional and then the 2021 state wrestling tournament. The Red-Tailed Hawks came away with the state crown and it was hard not to immediately look to 2022 and start thinking about a repeat.
And if that’s the case, the results of the Colorado Springs Metro tournament at Doherty High School should have everyone paying attention. The Hawks battled to a first-place finish, scoring 237.5 points as a team, 8.5 points better than second-place Pine Creek.
“This gives us a postseason feel,” coach Tyler Seaney said. “The way that USA Wrestling sets this up is that it’s a culminating event as the regular season wraps up. Now it really is on to regionals.”
If the Hawks perform at regionals the way they performed at Metros, they would carry a lot of momentum up to Ball Arena. Three wrestlers came out of the tournament with championships as Patrick Ransom won at 126 pounds, Zach Johnson took the 160-pound title and Nico Gagliardi dominated the 195-pound bracket.
The scary part is that the work in a tournament that has a postseason feel – evidenced by the crowd energy during the championship matches – should shake off any nerves that come with walking into the big-tournament atmosphere of the state tournament.
“For the kids that place really well in Metros, I think we have a ton of confidence going into state,” Gagliardi said. “For the kids who don’t do as well, I think they take that lesson and go into state knowing the kind of competition they’ll have. It gives us a really good viewpoint of what state is going to be like.”
Oddly enough, the Hawks claimed state despite just two wrestlers coming away with individual titles. One was Gagliardi at 195, the same weight he wrestles this year, and the other was Jake Boley who claimed the 220-pound title.
Raife Manjarrez took fourth at state and battled his way to a second-place finish at Metros. Nicholas Grizales advanced to the championship match at state only to lose to league rival Dominic Hargrove out of Discovery Canyon. At Metros, he lost in the championship match to Woodland Park’s Brady Hankin, who will be going for his fourth state title next month.
Three championships at Metros won’t necessarily equate to championships at state, but the mental preparation of battling at a big tournament certainly won’t hurt a team vying for another team championship.
“I was really impressed with the way kids stepped up with regionals being the first tournament,” Seaney said. “I turned out to be just a tournament. It was the first one so it was odd. But (Metros) will prepare us well. It was funny how well the kids responded last year wrestling at two tournaments, regionals and state.”
They’ve had plenty more this year which just means that a Cheyenne Mountain team preparing to win another championship could very well be more prepared than they were a year ago.