Pueblo East claims 4A regional wrestling title, Centennial two-time runner-up misses state

Mar. 7—While winning a regional wrestling title was expected for Pueblo East High School, one of the state's top wrestlers missing the state tournament wasn't. Far from it.

The second-ranked Eagles won the Class 4A Region 1 title during the Friday-Saturday event at Pueblo West High School's Jerry Kersey Gymnasium. They scored 189.5 points to hold off Thompson Valley (186) and Falcon (179) to claim the team title. Host Pueblo West was fourth with 126 points.

While that's wasn't a surprise, the biggest story was Pueblo Centennial senior Dominic Castro failing to qualify for next week's state tournament, which will be held in Pueblo for the first time at the Southwest Motors Events Center.

Castro, a two-time state runner-up at 106 pounds as a freshman and 113 pounds as a junior, came in as the No. 1-ranked wrestler at 126 pounds. He was beaten in overtime in the championship match 7-5 by Falcon's Landon Drury on Friday.

Then, in a true second-place wrestle back, he was forced to injury default to East's Tatum Rivera-Sargent after leading 5-1 in the second period.

That sent shockwaves through the tournament.

Meanwhile, East flexed its regional muscles by capturing four individual titles and garnering four other second-place finishes, qualifying eight for state.

It was the Eagles' sixth straight regional crown.

"Whether you win by a half-point or 50 every one has significant meaning," East coach Pat Laughlin said. "I'm just real proud of these guys. We're a very young team with only three seniors.

"All three seniors qualified and give us leadership. We're going to celebrate this and get back to practice for five days. State is in Pueblo and that's a cool deal."

Sophomore Weston Dalton at 132 pounds, a defending state champion, started the championship parade on Friday. He was joined by sophomore 138-pounder Sebastian Freeman and senior 145-pounder Anthony Flores on the winner's stand.

Sophomore LJ Herburger (106 pounds) and Rivera-Sargent (126) finished second, both qualifying for state.

On Saturday, the Eagles added a couple more state qualifiers.

Xavier Freeman, a junior who finished fifth at state last season, won at 182 pounds with a fall over Ryan Patterson of Falcon in 3:32.

"I've been working on my moves," Xavier Freeman said. "Last year, I was looking for angles. This year, I'm creating them.

"I'm going for first place this year. I've been telling myself that I'm the best and I'm going out every match knowing I'm going to win. I wrestled pretty good this weekend."

Diego Duarte placed second at 195 pounds as did 285-pounder Buddy Almintakh.

Pueblo West had three wrestlers in the finals on Saturday with Hayden Crosson winning a title at 170 pounds by a 2-0 score. Matthew Holdredge at 152 and Micah Duran at 160 finished as the runner-ups for the Cyclones.

"I have wrestled a lot of 2-0 matches," said Crosson, who placed third last season. "I felt like I had control throughout the match.

"I think I have a better chance to win state than any other year. It's in Pueblo, so I can sleep in my own bed."

The younger Freeman's match supplied the most drama on Friday.

In a matchup against a familiar foe in Canon City's Ezavian Ortega, the two sparred for two rounds. Ortega led 2-1 entering the third period.

With neither wrestler able to score and time winding down, Freeman found a surge of energy and reversed Ortega in the final seconds to pull off a 3-2 victory.

"His defense was very good," Freeman said of Ortega. "We wrestled before like three times last year. It was like wrestling a partner, we knew each other's moves. It was just who was going to pull it off."

Freeman explained what transpired in the final seconds.

"I just had the inner drive," he said. "There's still time on the clock, anything can happen. I was in game mode and I was going for anything at that point. I was nervous and I did just a last-ditch effort with all my energy to get the reversal."

Freeman, who finished third last season at state, knows you have to leave it all on the mat in the final meet of the season.

"I learned that once you get to state anything can happen," Freeman said. "At this point, it's whoever wants it the most is going to win state. You have to show you're the best and just push it."

Chieftain interim sports editor Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky