DENVER | When the Class 5A girls wrestling state tournament concludes Saturday night at Ball Arena, eight Aurora area qualifiers will climb the medal podium as top-six placers.
Where they will end up has yet to be determined, but three wrestlers apiece from Eaglecrest and Vista PEAK Prep plus one each from Regis Jesuit and Overland remained alive following the conclusion of Friday’s championship semifinals and third round of consolations.
Regis Jesuit sophomore Remington Zimmerer and Vista PEAK Prep junior Amelia Bacon will finish first or second at 120 and 125 pounds, respectively, as both were victorious in semifinal matches.
The places of the Eaglecrest trio of senior Bailee Mestas (130 pounds), freshman Maxime Lantz (140) and senior Natalie Replogle (145), as well as Vista PEAK Prep junior Parice Jones (190) and sophomore Khloe Yizar (235) and Overland senior 235-pounder Ruth Worknhe will start to be determined by the consolation semifinals at 9 a.m. Saturday.
The losers of those matches move on to wrestle for fifth place, while the winners wrestle later in the third-place match. The Parade of Champions for the finalists in 5A and 4A girls along with 2A-5A boys is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Bacon advanced to the state championship match for a second straight season (she was a runner-up last season) when she picked up a win by fall over Central of Grand Junction sophomore Harleigh Prater in the final seconds of the opening period of their semifinal. She will face Castle View sophomore Zaret Silva Lopez (34-4) in the championship match.
Zimmerer (37-3) will wrestle for a state championship for the first time after she earned a gritty 12-8 victory over Brighton junior Kiahna Spellman in the semifinals. She will go against 40-1 Amaya Hinojosa of Widefield in the 120-pound final.
Jones and Worknhe will try to rebound from semifinal losses — Jones lost by fall to Broomfield star Shayla Martinez at 190 pounds, while Worknhe was pinned by Standley Lake’s Soledad Luchman at 235 pounds — in the consolation semifinals.
Jones (22-8) will go against Denver North’s Yma Munoz (26-9) with a berth in the third-place match on the line, while Worknhe (22-11) will come full circle with a rematch against Yizar (20-8) for a chance to make the third-place match. Worknhe earned a win by fall in the third period over Yizar in Thursday’s opening round.
Mestas lost in the second round Thursday, but bounced back with a pair of consolation victories, including a pin of Brighton’s Emilie Melendez-Eisman to assure herself of a podium spot. Mestas upped her record to 41-14 and set up a match with Thornton’s Lola Hen to determine which placing match she moves into.
Replogle suffered a loss in the opening round, but has battled back with three victories to get into the placing round. She rallied from a sizeable deficit to earn a win by fall in the consolation first round and got another pin before she earned a 17-1 technical fall victory over Palmer Ridge’s Miah Lendsey.
In her first state tournament, Lantz started strong with a opening round win, then bounced back from a loss in the quarterfinals with two pins on the backside of the 140-pound bracket, capped by a second-period win by fall over Douglas County’s Grecia Montejo-Garcia to assure herself of a top-six spot.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
AURORA CLASS 5A GIRLS STATE CONSOLATION/PLACING MATCHES
125 pounds: Championship match — Amelia Bacon, jr., Vista PEAK Prep (35-1) vs. Zaret Silva Lopez, soph., Castle View (34-4)
120 pounds: Championship match — Remington Zimmerer, soph., Regis Jesuit (37-3) vs. Amaya Hinojosa, jr., Widefield (40-1)
130 pounds: Consolation semifinal — Bailee Mestas, sr., Eaglecrest (41-14) vs. Lola Hen, jr., Thornton (30-11)
140 pounds: Consolation semifinal — Maxime Lantz, fr., Eaglecrest (33-15) vs. Mireya Estrada, sr., Loveland (33-3)
145 pounds: Consolation semifinal — Natalie Replogle, sr., Eaglecrest (35-14) vs. Myka Martinez, jr., Widefield (15-3)
190 pounds: Consolation semifinal — Parice Jones, jr., Vista PEAK Prep (22-8) vs. Yma Munoz, soph., Denver North (26-9)
235 pounds: Consolation semifinal — Khloe Yizar, soph., Vista PEAK Prep (20-8) vs. Ruth Worknhe, sr., Overland (22-11)
