One of the Aurora area’s best overall seasons for boys wrestling in quite some time is reflected by the composition of the 2025 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Wrestling Team.
Two Class 5A state champions, five finalists and a total of 11 top-six placers — which represent four different area programs — fill the 14 first team spots as decided primarily by performance at the state tournament.
Grandview finished third in the 5A standings for the second straight season and coach Ryan Budd’s teams did so with help of the strength of three finalists — none of them seniors — in sophomore JR Ortega (113 pounds), junior Jonathan Montes Gonzales (150) and sophomore Leland Day (285).
Find the full 2024-25 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Wrestling Team, here
Ortega emerged as the lone state champion in the group, as he bettered his third-place finish from the previous season by winning his way to the top of the podium. During a season in which he finished 36-6, four of his losses came out of state at the Reno Tournament of Champions and Doc Buchanan Invitational, while won the Arvada West Invitational and finished as the runner-up of the rugged Top of the Rockies tournament before he went unbeaten the rest of the way to collect the Centennial League Championship title and Region 3 crown to get to the state tournament.
At Ball Arena, Ortega put on a dominating performance (in which he outscored opponents 47-9) that included a win by technical fall, two others by major decision and a comfortable 5-0 defeat of Fruita Monument’s Kel Unrein in the final (story, here).
Montes Gonzales was pinned last season by Regis Jesuit’s Garrett Reece in an all-Aurora final at 150 pounds and he completed a quest to return to the title match again. His season included a third-place finish at the Top of the Rockies tournament, followed by victories at at the Centennial League Championships and Region 3 tournament to earn a third state tournament berth in as many varsity seasons.
Montes Gonzales (35-7) earned wins by pin, major decision and decision in his first three state matches to earn a finals spot opposite Arvada West’s Auston Eudaly, who had pinned him in the Arvada West Invitational finals and in the semifinals at the Top of the Rockies. This time, he went to the last second with a chance before he lost 6-5.
Day’s season had just about everything short of a state championship, as he won the heavyweight division of the Top of the Rockies after he had placed fourth at the Reno Tournament of Champions. He won titles at the Arvada West Invitational, the Centennial League Championships and the Region 3 tournament to earn a return to state, where he won his first two matches by fall.
A win by decision over Pine Creek’s Isaac Landry put him into the final against Fruita Monument senior Tatum Williams, who he hadn’t faced this season. Williams scored the first point, held off Day’s attempt to get a takedown and got one of his own late for a 4-0 victory that dealt Day just his fifth loss in 44 matches.
Grandview’s All-Aurora first team contingent is rounded out by senior Charlie Herting (175), junior Gunner Lopez (157), sophomores Graeson Streit (132), Braxston Widrikis (144) and Oz Nowick (215) plus freshman Cade Hirstine (165), the only non-state qualifier on the All-Aurora team.
Herting — Aurora’s most prolific pinner and Grandview’s all-time leader in wins by fall — won his first state championship last season at 165 pounds and put himself on track to win the 175-pound crown this season. The Western State commitment won by fall twice on the opening night of the tournament and had leads on several occasions in the semifinals against Pomona’s Emmitt Munson, who eventually prevailed 12-8 in overtime to snap Herting’s 14-match winning streak. He picked up two more pins in his final two matches — including one over Chatfield’s Jay Aplanalp in the third place match — to finish 44-5.
Also placing third for the Wolves was Lopez (now a three-time state placer in as many seasons), who raised his level as he trained with Montes Gonzales and had a season in which he finished fifth at the Top of the Rockies tournament and won titles at the Arvada West Invitational, the Centennial League Championships and Region 3 tournament to make it to state, where he piled up 32 points in his first two matches to earn a spot in the 157-pound semifinals.
Ponderosa’s DJ Wince escaped with a two-point win in the semifinals to end Lopez’s title hopes, but he picked up two wins on the consolation side of the bracket — including a win by major decision over Grand Junction’s Hassan Maynes in the third-place match — to finish 38-7.
Widrikis placed third at the Top of the Rockies tournament, won his bracket at the Centennial League Championships as well as the Region 3 tournament to make it to state, which he opened with wins by major decision and pin to reach the semifinals. He was was stopped there by Pomona’s Derek Barrows, the 144-pound state champion. A two-point loss in the consolation semifinal landed Widrikis a spot in the fifth-place match, which he dominated with 18-3 win by technical fall to finish the season 40-10.
Nowick — who finished third at the Top of the Rockies, won the Centennial League Championship tournament and finished as the Region 3 runner-up to Northglenn’s Eli Stevens, the eventual state champion — wrestled as many matches as anybody in Aurora at the state tournament as he hit the mat six times and won half of those matches to end up in sixth place at 215 pounds. He managed to face six different foes in those matches and his wins came by decision, major decision and technical fall as he finishedv31-9 for the season.
Streit — the Centennial League champion at 132 pounds and third place finisher at the Region 3 tournament — did not place in his second trip to state as he went 1-2. He earned a win by fall in the consolation bracket sandwiched between two four-point losses to cap a 34-11 season.
The only weight to not feature an Aurora area state qualifier was at 165 pounds, where Hirstine performed the best with a 13-5 record. He won all four dual matches when he was in the lineup, earned second place in his weight at the Centennial League Championships (behind 3A state runner-up Isaak Chavez of Mullen) and went 3-2 with a fifth-place in the Region 3 tournament.
Vista PEAK Prep had a breakthrough season from junior Ian Bacon, the program’s first state champion boys or girls, as he beat twin sister Amelia to the punch by just a few minutes (story, here).
Bacon went from not placing at last season’s state tournament all the way to the top step of the podium as he put it all together in the key stretch of the campaign for coach David Benedict’s Bison. Bacon became nearly unbeatable after the calendar turned to 2025, as he won titles at the Northglenn Norse Invitational, Mile High Classic, City League Championship and Region 3 tournament to reach the state tournament. He opened state with a two-point decision, pinned Ponderosa’s Jeremiah Waldschmidt — a state finalist in 2024 — with just three seconds left in their quarterfinal match and then prevailed over another former finalist, Pomona’s Zaidyn Quinonez, in the semifinals.
Bacon’s foe in the championship match was Cherokee Trail sophomore Cooper Mathews — who was on a bid for a second career state title — but Bacon won the match by fall midway through the second period to finish 43-7.
Coach Jeff Buck’s Cherokee Trail team — 10th in the final 5A standings — landed three spots on the All-Aurora team for seniors Chance Mathews (138) and Mateo Garreffa (190) as well as freshman Elijah Van Horn (106).
Chance Mathews finished as Aurora’s leader in wins with 51 against just three losses, only one of which came in Colorado as he lost regular season matches in California at the Hamada Classic and in Arizona at the Flowing Well Invitational. He won the Centennial League Championship tournament and Region 2 title to make it back to state, where he’d place twice previously.
The Air Force recruit picked up wins by fall in his first two matches and dominated his semifinal for a win by major decision, which put him into the state finals with an added bonus of the chance to share the Parade of Champions with his younger brother, Cooper, who made the 120-pound title match. Mathews’ championship quest came up short, however, as he dropped an agonizing 5-4 decision to Pomona’s Angel Serrano.
Garreffa got onto the mat shortly after the end of the football season and he started strong and got even better after winter break as he won every match he wrestled in dual matches, placed top three in several tournaments, won the Centennial League championship at 190 pounds and finished as the runner-up to Ponderosa star De’Alcapon Veazy in Region 2.
Once at the state tournament, Garreffa earned his way into the semifinals for a second straight season, but again was stopped a win shy of wrestling for a state title. He picked up wins by technical fall and pin in his first two matches before he was stopped by then-undefeated Carson Hageman of Erie in the semifinals. A consolation semifinal win put Garreffa into the third-place match against Pomona’s Emerson Claeys (who he had pinned earlier), but he lost a 7-1 overtime decision to finish 45-9.
Van Horn got into the lineup when Cooper Mathews moved to 120 (which allowed sophomore Charlie Rider — another state qualifier — to move up to 113) and he capitalized. He won the championship at the Warhorse Invitational, finished as the runner-up at the Centennial League Championships and placed third in Region 2.
Once in the state tournament, Van Horn responded from a loss by decision in his opening round match (to ThunderRidge’s Emmett Alexander, who went all the way to the state championship match) to win three straight times on the consolation side of the bracket to make the medal podium. He dropped his last two matches to finish 33-11 overall and place sixth.
Rounding out the All-Aurora team is Eaglecrest senior Alijah Gabaldon at 126 pounds.
A state placer as a junior, Gabaldon was in and out of coach Javier Quintana’s lineup due to injury, but put things together after winter break and won the Centennial League Championship tournament at his weight. He qualified for a return to state with a fourth-place showing at the Region 2 tournament and opened the tournament with a win by fall. Gabaldon (20-7 on the season) lost in the quarterfinals, then won his consolation second round match before he fell one win shy of the placing round.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
