AURORA – Before she was a girls wrestling sensation, Chatfield’s Ryen Hickey had tried out a couple of sports by age 8.
“I did some karate and jujitsu, and then it was just a flier that my mom got for wrestling,” Hickey said. “I’ve always been labeled a little too aggressive for soccer, so we thought, ‘Let’s give wrestling a try.'”
And it didn’t take long for her to find her niche.
“I was pretty good right away, just because I was super aggressive,” Hickey said. “I was able to kind of muscle people around at the beginning. The technique came later. It took some work to get good technically, but I’ve always had that wrestler mindset.”
Hickey is one of six former Colorado state champions in girls wrestling seeking to add another title to her resume as the postseason starts with regional tournaments – for both boys and girls – this weekend and then concludes with the Feb. 13 through 15 state championships at Ball Arena in Denver.
Hickey, 35-0 with 33 pins this season (the other two wins were by technical fall), is 73-1 during her high school career, with the only loss coming to a senior in a California tournament during her freshman year.
Hickey, ranked No. 9 nationally (and No. 1 in Colorado) by trackwrestling.com at 145 pounds, won the state title as a freshman, but was unable to compete as a sophomore due to an elbow injury.
“Everyone was lucky and didn’t have to compete against her,” said Chatfield coach Sandra George, laughing. “This year, she’s a hammer.”
Hickey is one of two 2023 girls state champions who were out last season due to injury and are seeking to return to glory this year. The other is 105-pounder Katey Valdez of Doherty, who is top-ranked nationally at 100 pounds.
“I thought I needed a little break, and then it was boom – 10 months,” Hickey said, laughing. “That was a little too long of a break. But it helped me enjoy wrestling even more and also find myself outside of wrestling.
“It was definitely unfortunate. I did want to be a four-timer (state champion). But everything happens for a reason and I didn’t want to be too sad about it. I tried to keep a positive mindset.”
Other than the freshman class, only three Colorado girls have chances to become four-time state champions – junior Timberly Martinez of Pomona is seeking her third straight title, while sophomores Matilda Hruby of Brighton and Justice Gutierrez of Pomona won last year. Martinez, wrestling at 140, is ranked No. 15 nationally at 145, while Hruby is 11th nationally at 155 and Gutierrez is No. 5 at 95.
Hickey, who was able to wrestle on the national level last summer, showed she was fully ready for high school action at the first tournament of the season, when she pinned Martinez at 3:53 to in the championship match of the Eaglecrest Invitational in mid-December.
“She has an awesome goal of trying to pin everybody in the first period,” George said. “She’s the more aggressive and more athletic person in every match. Even when she comes across some girls with some talent, Ryen is just very fluid. It’s awesome to witness.
“Some fans complain that she pins everyone in the first period, because they’d like to see her wrestle more.”
In addition to the five listed above, Colorado has five other girls wrestlers in the national top 25 – Piper Montoya of Cañon City (No. 23 at 105), Amaya Hinojosa of Widefield (No. 18 at 120), Hayden Newberg of Vista Ridge (No. 14 at 135), Kate Doughty of Canon City (No. 20 at 135) and Vivienne Gitke of Strasburg (No. 18 at 140).
All 10 of Colorado’s nationally-ranked wrestlers are ranked No. 1 in Colorado in the rankings supplied to CHSAA by Tom Blair of InsideCoWrestling. Seven of them compete at the 5A level, while the Canon City duo of Montana and Doughty, as well as Gitke of Strasburg are 4A competitors.
For the first time this season, CHSAA will sponsor championships at two levels – 5A and 4A – for girls wrestling.
“It’s the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. and more colleges are picking it up every year,” George said.
Showing the growth of the sport, the NCAA announced last month that it has added women’s wrestling as a championship sport, with the first wrestling championships scheduled for next year. Nearly 100 NCAA schools currently have wrestling programs.
“I’d like to make some world teams, some national teams, and that comes up every year,” Hickey said. “And I’d like to wrestle at the college level. Now that there’s a national championship, that’s pretty cool. I just want to have fun with it, make connections, make friends.”
But first comes this season’s postseason.
The top-ranked teams in 5A are Grand Junction Central, Pomona and Chatfield. In 4A, the top three are Pueblo Central, Lamar and Sedgwick County/Fleming.
“We’re hoping to win it,” Hickey said. “We’ll see if that happens. Our team definitely has some younger wrestlers – most of our varsity is underclassmen. We’re kind of rebuilding, but we’ve gotten way better this year. We’re all working towards our individual goals, which will push us up as a team. It’s not out of the ballpark to finish in the top three, but there are some really stacked teams out there.”