(Photo courtesy of Brandon Lohr)

Oran Huff was one of 56 wrestlers that stood at the very top of the state wrestling podium. With eight losses to his name, Huff entered the Class 2A 126-pound bracket looking to do something special for himself and for his teammates at Lyons.

Two pins and two decisions later, he claimed gold at Pepsi Center. He was just a sophomore, but he carried his way through the state bracket like a seasoned veteran. He had come so close the year before, but fell in the quarterfinals on his way to a fourth-place finish.

This year, he’s removing all doubt that anyone can beat him. Mainly because no one has beaten him.

Huff is one of 10 wrestlers who have wrestled 20 matches this season and walked away victorious in each and every one of them. He’s gotten better and better each season and taking an undefeated record into the state tournament is a good way to be better this season. It’s also a way that it’s easy to feel pressure.

Luckily for Huff, he’s not about the end of the road as much as he is taking in the moment. And in the individual moment, pressure isn’t something that gets to him.

“I don’t feel like I’m dealing with a lot of it,” he said. “I’d like to to go undefeated, but losses happen and I’m going to lose eventually be it whenever it happens. Hopefully it doesn’t happen within the season.”

Of his 30 victories this year, only seven of them have not been by fall. He’s been truly dominant as the 2019-20 season has played out.

For the most part, so has Colorado Springs Christian’s Jake Hamilton. The Lions’ senior started the season wrestling in the 160-pound division, but has since dropped to 152 which is where he plans to make his run at state.

“We’ve been to a couple of easy tournaments where the competition wasn’t too hard there,” Hamilton said. “I’ve had a couple of close matches where I was pretty lucky to win. I just walk out on the mat with so much confidence where I know that not a single person can finish a shot on me.”

That’s half the battle right there is the mentality.

Each time these undefeated wrestlers get their hand raised they start looking toward their next opponents and a big reason why they keep winning is their belief that they can do so.

That’s been the case for Doherty’s Tyson Beauperthuy who has more wins than anyone in the state at 31. That’s the case Windsor’s Dominick Serrano who at 29-0 will go for his fourth state championship in just a few weeks.

Even more impressive is that Serrano has yet to lose a high school match in his career.

Serrano’s season doesn’t come as a surprise as he has already finished three undefeated seasons, but that isn’t the case for the other competitors. Even though Huff has continued to get better in his career, not having a loss to his name with state just around the corner is a bit of a surprise, even to him.

“I’ve had some really close matches that could’ve gone either way,” Huff said. “I haven’t expected to have this kind of season, but I’m really happy about it.”

Wrestlers head to regionals on Feb. 14 to try and qualify for the 2020 state wrestling tournament at Pepsi Center.

With the level of competition rising from here on out, staying undefeated will be an impressive achievement for those wrestlers without a loss to their name.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Chatfield and Ralston Valley wrestling met in a dual meet on Thursday.

Second-ranked Rocky Mountain wrestling beat No. 8 Poudre 37-30 on Thursday.

Below are this week’s wrestling rankings from On The Mat.

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On The Mat Wrestling Rankings

Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.

To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.

To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.

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Jeffco Preps With Pleuss is a monthly roundup of Jeffco prep highlights hosted by Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ sports information director. This month’s edition features Jefferson wrestlers had a solid showing at the Ron Granieri Memorial Invitational at Arvada West High School. We take in boys basketball action where Golden and Evergreen squared off in Class 4A Jeffco League action. Pomona boys basketball team traveled to Lakewood High School for a battle of the ‘big cats’. Green Mountain’s girls basketball is leading the pack in the 4A Jeffco League standings this winter and had no problem with Golden on a Saturday afternoon. We finish with highlights from the Adapted Athletics Basketball Day at Gold Crown Field House.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

COLORADO SPRINGS — After leading by 10 points at the end of the first quarter, Sand Creek needed a 3-pointer from Nikki Derrell at the buzzer to go into halftime with a one-point edge over Falcon.

Coach Payden Goldberg wasn’t worried. Quite the opposite. She thought her team was the exact position it needed to be.

She was right.

The Class 4A No. 4 Scorpions dialed up the pressure in the second half to get a 66-50 win over the No. 8 Falcons.

“We missed a lot of layups in the first half, missed some free throws and also just had some late turnovers,” Goldberg said. “So I knew that once we came out and kind of refocused and regrouped that we were going to be just fine.”

It also helped that her players got off to a better start in the second half than they did in the first half. A sloppy first quarter had the Scorpions (13-1 overall, 7-0 Pikes Peak Athletic Conference) with a 5-4 lead. Three-pointers from Derrell and Riley Rodriguez broke open a 12-3 run to end the quarter.

The second half was a much different story. The Falcons (12-4, 6-1) had battled back in the second quarter, but as Sand Creek turned up the pressure, Falcon turned the ball over. Derrell then scored seven of her game-high 17 points in the third quarter.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

“I think it was the crowd, honestly,” Derrell said. “The game started getting closer and the crowd started getting louder and it was time to take control of the game and slow the tempo down so we can play our game.”

It was a crucial win for the Scorpions who now sit alone atop the PPAC standings. Across the board, it’s the most important win of the season thus far.

“It was important to us because we were both undefeated in our league,” Derrell said. “This game means so much to us, so we just had to go hard or go home.”

Hannah Burg led the Falcons with 14 points and was part of the surge that helped them pull close – and even briefly take the lead – in the second quarter.

Derrell’s 3-pointer at the buzzer of the second quarter did a great job of helping the Scorpions mentally stay in the game and make the necessary adjustments in order to pull away like they ended up doing.

“It was just working together and just become talking more on defense,” Tamika Williams said. “We started trusting each other more.”

Williams scored eight of her 14 points in the first half. Sahmira Wallace scored 10 of her 12 in the second half.

The Falcons face Lewis-Palmer on Friday and already have a four-point win over the Rangers this year. Next up for the Scorpions is a trip to Discovery Canyon.

Should the Falcons and Scorpions continue to rack up league wins, they’ll face off on Feb. 20 to close out the regular season.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

GOLDEN — Alan Acevedo is making his mark on the hardwood during his freshman campaign at Golden High School.

Wednesday night was another example of how key the freshman has been for the Demons — No. 9 in the CHSAANow.com Class 4A boys basketball rankings. Acevedo came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points and grab seven rebounds in Golden’s 58-53 home victory over D’Evelyn.

Golden freshman Alan Acevedo (30) goes up strong against D’Evelyn senior Sandy Dinegar (0) on Wednesday night. Acevedo had a game-high 22 points off the bench in the Demons’ 5-point win. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

“I just want help the team,” Acevedo said. “I don’t really care about points. I care about the family and team.”

The victory kept Golden (11-6, 5-1) atop the 4A Jeffco League standings with rival Wheat Ridge (9-6, 5-1). Green Mountain (11-4, 4-2) is one game back. D’Evelyn (7-10, 3-3) is still within striking distance, but Jaguars’ coach Dan Zinn knows getting better and preparing for the playoffs is a primary focus.

“We are still going to battle every game and see where the chips fall,” Zinn said of the league title. “But at the same time we know there is a state tournament that we will be apart of and we want to get ready for that as well.”

D’Evelyn held a 29-28 halftime lead on the road against Golden, but the Demons turned the tide in the third quarter. After 15 points in the first half, Acevedo stayed hot. The freshman’s 3-pointer with 2:30 left in the third quarter gave Golden the lead for good at 38-37.

A 14–3 run extend the lead to double-digits midway through the fourth quarter.

“Second half we talked about just keeping our guy in front of us and play some good half-court man defense,” Golden coach Lou Vullo said. “We picked it up with our energy when we starting playing our 1-3-1 and trapping them at half-court. I think that is when we turned it around a little bit.”

Senior Ben McLaughlin hit a big 3-pointer during the Demons’ run in the fourth quarter. Fellow senior Jack Anderson had a field goal and went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to reach 10 points on the night.

“We feel like we are deep,” Vullo said of his team that had eight players score on the night. “If someone isn’t producing one night someone else will step in and help us out. We are fortunate to have that.”

D’Evelyn senior Sam Belmonte (4) tries to work inside on Golden freshman Alan Acevedo and senior Kevin Mulligan. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

D’Evelyn senior Sandy Dinegar (11 points) and junior Kase Sundarapura (10 points) were he lone Jaguars to reach double-digit points in the loss.

“Our defensively intensity was there all night,” Zinn said. “Our energy was there, but when you can’t make baskets it is tough to win basketball games.”

Wednesday night marked the midway-point through 4A Jeffco League play. All seven teams in the competitive conference have played six of the dozen league games on the schedule. Going into Wednesday’s action, only Standley Lake was outside the top-48 in RPI that qualify for the state tournament.

“This league is tough. We play Littleton on Friday and they are a scary team,” Vullo said. “At the end of the day there could be five of us who go to the state tournament.”

Golden has road games coming up against Littleton (Friday, Jan. 31) and Standley Lake (Feb. 5) before heading into the home stretch of conference play.

D’Evelyn remains on the road with games against Evergreen (Friday, Jan. 31) and Green Mountain (Feb. 5).

Golden senior Ben McLaughlin (2) dribbles in front of the D’Evelyn bench and junior Luke Kjellsen (43) during the first half Wednesday night during the Class 4A Jeffco League game. (Dennis Pleuss/ Jeffco Athletics)

Raegan Beers led all scorers with 21 while also grabbing 10 rebounds as Class 5A No. 2 Valor Christian girls basketball beat No. 5 Ralston Valley 78-41.

Class 5A No. 5 Regis Jesuit girls basketball improved to 13-4 on the season after beating Douglas County 81-21 on Wednesday.

Chaparral girls basketball looked strong early and got a 56-28 win over Castle View at home on Wednesday.