AURORA | The 2025 Class 5A and 4A boys state wrestling tournaments for Aurora at a glance:
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado .com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
Nine Aurora programs — Cherokee Trail, Eaglecrest, Grandview, Overland, Regis Jesuit, Smoky Hill and Vista PEAK Prep in Class 5A and Gateway and Hinkley in 4A — will be represented by a total of 32 qualifiers in the 2025 boys state wrestling tournament, which is set for Feb. 13-15, 2025, at Ball Arena. The tournament is back in Downtown Denver for a fourth straight season after it was held in Pueblo in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Grandview has the largest state contingent of qualifiers (11), followed by Cherokee Trail with seven and Vista Prep Prep three, while Eaglecrest, Gateway, Hinkley, Overland and Smoky Hill have two apiece and Regis Jesuit qualified one.
Full 2025 Class 5A/4A boys state tournament pairings, here
∙ With the debut a second classification in girls wrestling this season, a schedule shift has taken place for the entire tournament. The first two rounds of the Class 5A and 4A boys tournament will take place at the same time as the 5A girls on 12 mats between 5-9 p.m. Feb. 13. Second round consolation matches run from 12:45-4 p.m. Feb. 14, followed by semifinals at 6 p.m. and the third round of consolations at approximately 7:15 p.m. Consolation semifinals are slated for 9 a.m. Feb. 15, followed by fifth-place matches and then third-place matches. The Parade of Champions for girls and boys is at 4 p.m. ahead of finals contested on six mats.
∙ Tim Yount of On The Mat released his predictions for the top six placewinners in each of the 14 weight classes and his predictions — based on a thorough analysis of the brackets and how wrestlers have performed coming into the tournament — have 12 Aurora wrestlers making their way onto the medal podium and two others one match away from making the medal round depending on the flow of the tournament.
Yount’s projections have six Aurora wrestlers advancing to championship matches and three of them — Grandview sophomore JR Ortega (113 pounds), Grandview senior Charlie Herting (175 pounds) and Grandview sophomore Leland Day (285 pounds) — having their arms raised as state champions, with three others (Cherokee Trail sophomore Cooper Mathews at 120 pounds, Cherokee Trail senior Chance Mathews at 138 pounds and Grandview junior Jonathan Montes Gonzales at 150 pounds finishing second. Cooper Mathews and Herting won state championships last season and Montes Gonzales lost in the finals. Yount’s projections have a trio of local third-place finishers in Vista PEAK Prep junior Ian Bacon (120 pounds), Grandview junior Gunner Lopez (157 pounds) and Cherokee Trail senior Mateo Garreffa (190 pounds), plus a fourth-place finisher at 144 pounds (Grandview sophomore Braxston Widrikis), a fifth-place finisher at 190 pounds (Grandview freshman Ryder Hoffschneider) and a sixth-place finisher at 150 pounds in Cherokee Trail junior Ryan Everhart. On match away depending on the flow of the tournament are Eaglecrest senior Alijah Gabaldon at 126 pounds and Grandview sophomore Oz Nowick at 215 pounds. Yount’s projections of top-six placers (in any order) last season was 83.3 percent accurate.
In the team chase, Yount projects Grandview to finish in third place for a second straight season, while he has Cherokee Trail in seventh.
∙ Grandview sophomore JR Ortega (Region 3, 113 pounds), Cherokee Trail sophomore Cooper Mathews (Region 2, 120 pounds), Vista PEAK Prep junior Ian Bacon (Region 3, 120 pounds), Cherokee Trail senior Chance Mathews (Region 2, 138 pounds), Grandview sophomore Braxston Widrikis (Region 3, 144 pounds), Cherokee Trail junior Ryan Everhart (Region 2, 150 pounds), Grandview junior Jonathan Montes Gonzales (Region 3, 150 pounds), Grandview junior Gunner Lopez (Region 3, 157 pounds), Grandview senior Charlie Herting (Region 3, 175 pounds) and Grandview sophomore Leland Day (Region 3, 285 pounds) all won regional championships. The Wolves had six individual champions and three runners-up on their way to the Region 3 team championship, while the Cougars were the Region 2 runners-up behind Ponderosa as senior 190-pounder Mateo Garreffa was their fourth finalists and placed second. Two of Aurora’s qualifiers got in via regional wrestleback in Overland senior heavyweight Silver Velasquez DeLao (who won his 5A Region 4 wrestleback) and Gateway junior Daniel Anaya Sanchez, who earned a win by fall in a 132-pound wrestleback at the 4A Region 4 tournament. (Full team scores and individual results for the 5A & 4A regional tournaments involving Aurora teams, here).
∙ Aurora’s most state seasoned wrestler is Smoky Hill senior Dashawn Jenkins, who is a four-time 5A state qualifier and all in the same 106 pound bracket. He has gone 1-2 the past two seasons after an 0-2 showing as a freshman in 2022. Three-time qualifiers in this season’s group are Vista PEAK Prep junior 120-pound Ian Bacon (who has a 2-4 career state mark in 4A, while the Bison move to 5A this season), Eaglecrest senior 126-pounder Alijah Gabaldon (who has a 6-3 career record), Cherokee Trail senior 138-pounder Chance Mathews (who missed the postseason his sophomore year due to injury, but went 6-5 combined as a freshman and junior), Grandview junior 157-pounder Gunner Lopez (who has a 6-6 career state record) and Grandview senior Charlie Herting (who is 8-1 in his previous two state appearances). Nine others will make their second state appearance and nine will be first-timers.
∙ A whopping 10 of Aurora’s 5A state qualifiers return after making the medal podium as top-six state placers last season. Leading the way are two state champions in Cherokee Trail sophomore Cooper Mathews — who is at 120 pounds this season after he won the 106-pound crown last season — as well as Grandview senior Charlie Herting, who won the 165-pound title last season (after he placed third at 165 in 2023) and takes aim at adding an 175-pound crown this season. Regis Jesuit’s Garrett Reece won a state championship in 2024 as a junior, but missed this season due to injury. Grandview junior 150-pounder Jonathan Montes Gonzales was the runner-up in the same weight class in 2024, while Grandview sophomore 113-pounder JR Ortega (third at 106 pounds last season), Eaglecrest senior 126-pounder Alijah Gabaldon (third at the same weight last season), Cherokee Trail senior 138-pounder Chance Mathews (fourth in the same weight last season), Grandview sophomore 285-pounder Leland Day (fifth in the same weight last season), Grandview junior 157-pounder Gunner Lopez (sixth in the same weight last season after he was sixth at 132 pounds in 2023) and Cherokee Trail senior 190-pounder Mateo Garreffa (sixth in the same weight last season) also return.
∙ Aurora’s qualifiers span 13 of the 14 weight classes in Class 5A, with only 165 the only weight that is absent of a local. The largest concentration of locals is at 106 pounds — where Smoky Hill senior Dashawn Jenkins and Grandview sophomore Pearce Christensen sit in the top of the bracket and Vista PEAK Prep junior Adrian Pacheco and Cherokee Trail freshman Elijah Van Horn appear in the lower half — as well as 113, which features Regis Jesuit junior Richard Avila and Smoky Hill freshman Tagg Charity in the top half of the draw and Grandview sophomore JR Ortega and Cherokee Trail sophomore Charlie Rider in the bottom half.
∙ Two Aurora programs make appearances at the state tournament after significant absences, as Gateway (senior Juan Campos at 138 pounds and junior Daniel Anaya Sanchez at 132) and Hinkley (senior Marco Duran at 126 pounds and junior Carter Davis at 215) both have two qualifiers in the 4A tournament. The Thunder’s last state representative was Emory Bemis back in 2019, while the Olys had their last state wrestler in 2017 in Blake Thomas. The last time both programs had multiple qualifiers was 2016.
∙ All 32 of Aurora’s qualifiers go into the state tournament with winning records and four of them have posted 40 wins or more. Cherokee Trail senior Chance Mathews leads the way with a 48-2 record at 138 pounds, followed by Cherokee Trail sophomore Cooper Mathews (42-4 at 120), Cherokee Trail senior Mateo Garreffa (42-7 at 190) and Grandview senior Charlie Herting (40-4 at 175). The qualifier with the fewest matches is Overland senior Jarrius Ward, who is 6-1 at 215 pounds.
∙ There are multiple family ties in the tournament. Vista PEAK Prep junior Ian Bacon (5A 120 pounds), and his twin sister, Amelia (5A 125 pounds), qualified for the girls state tournament for a third straight season and both won regional championships. In the 5A tournament is a set of brothers from Cherokee Trail in Cooper (120) and Chance Mathews (138).
∙ The breakdown of Aurora state qualifiers by year: 10 are seniors, 10 are juniors and there is nine sophomores and three freshmen.
