AURORA | Nine Aurora programs — Cherokee Trail, Eaglecrest, Grandview, Hinkley, Overland, Rangeview, Regis Jesuit, Smoky Hill and Vista PEAK — will be represented at the 2018 Class 5A/4A state wrestling tournament, set for Feb. 15-17 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. All 11 city programs had at least one qualifier apiece the past two seasons.
Grandview has the largest state contingent with 10 state qualifiers, followed by Cherokee Trail (6), Overland (4), Vista PEAK (4), Eaglecrest (3), Rangeview (3) and Hinkley, Regis Jesuit and Smoky Hill with one apiece.
Full Class 5A & 4A state tournament pairings, here
・The first round of the 5A & 4A state tournament begins at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, with matches running until they are completed. Championship quarterfinals take place at 12:45 p.m. Friday and championship semifinals at 7 p.m. Placing matches are slated for 2 p.m. Saturday and the Parade of Champions preceding the finals is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Consolation matches take place following each championship round Friday and preceding placing matches on Saturday.
・Tim Yount of On The Mat released his predictions for the top six placewinners in each weight class and his predictions — based on a thorough analysis of the bracket and how wrestlers have performed coming into the tournament — have 11 Aurora wrestlers making their way onto the medal podium and six others one match away from making the medal round depending on the flow of the tournament.
Yount’s projections have one Aurora wrestler making the finals in Grandview junior Fabian Santillan at 126 pounds in 5A and he has Santillan winning the championship over Nick Gonzales of Adams City. Last season, Yount projected three Aurora wrestlers to make the finals and finish as runners-up and he was correct in two of them in Cherokee Trail’s Zeke Silva (195) and Max Gonzales (220). Grandview’s state championship heavyweight Gabriel Baumgartner was projected to finish fourth.
The pre-state picks project Aurora to have a top-six placers in 10 of the 14 weight classes (save 152, 160, 182 and 285 pounds) with only two placers at the same weight in Overland’s Kaelin Chin and Vista PEAK’s Jayden Smith, who are projected to place fourth in 5A and 4A, respectively. Yount has five Grandview wrestlers slated to place in 5A — which was the number that placed for the Wolves last year — led by Fabian Santillan as champion at 126 pounds, Alex Santillan (113), Giovani Federico (120) and Dylan Ranieri (145) all in fourth at their respective weights and Brice Hartzheim 6th at 170. Vista PEAK has a pair of projected placers in Smith and Tristan Curtis (5th in 4A at 138 pounds), while Eaglecrest has one in Caeleb Knoll (5th in 5A at 106), as does Cherokee Trail (Davione Marshall, 6th in 5A at 220), Overland (Chin, 4th in 5A at 195) and Regis Jesuit (Antonio Segura, 6th in 5A at 132).
One match away from making the medal round depending on the flow of the tournament are Grandview’s Grady Colgan (152 pounds) and Joe Renner (195), Cherokee Trail’s Drake Davis (126) and David Rivera (132), Overland’s Grant Bradley (113) and Eaglecrest’s Tyler Maccagnan (152).
Yount has two systems to project the 5A team standings and has Grandview in the No. 8 spot in both.
・Ten of Aurora’s 33 qualifiers made it to the state tournament last season and 11 have wrestled at the Pepsi Center before, as Grandview junior Fabian Santillan is back after making it as a freshman in 2016 before missing last season due to injury. There are no four-time Aurora qualifiers in the field, but Grandview senior Giovani Federico (120), Cherokee Trail junior David Rivera (132) and Overland senior Kaelin Chin (195) have made it for a third time. Grandview‘s Fabian Santillan (126), Dylan Ranieri (145) and Grady Colgan (152) are two-time qualifiers, as are Overland’s Grant Bradley (113) and Isaiah Bradley (120), Vista PEAK’s Tristan Curtis (138) and Jayden Smith (195). Cherokee Trail’s Davione Marshall (220), Eaglecrest’s Tyler Maccagnan (152) and Rangeview’s Bryan Fierro (120). Chin, Federico and Ranieri are returning state placers, as Chin took third last year at 195 pounds and Federico and Ranieri were sixth at 113 and 138, respectively.
・Four Aurora wrestlers enter the state tournament with top seeds that come from winning regional championships in Grandview’s Fabian Santillan (126) pounds) and Dylan Ranieri (145) — who won Region 4 titles to help the Wolves win the team crown — Cherokee Trail’s Davione Marshall (the Region 3 220-pound winner) and Vista PEAK’s Jayden Smith, who won the 195-pound bracket at 4A Region 1.
・Between 5A and 4A, the most Aurora state qualifiers appear at 126 pounds with Fabian Santillan of Grandview joined by another former state qualifier in Overland’s Isaiah Bradley and first-timers Drake Davis of Cherokee Trail and Tony Lozano of Vista PEAK (4A).
・Eaglecrest sophomore 106-pounder Caeleb Knoll has the most wins among any of Aurora’s state qualifiers with 43 (against five losses), while Grandview’s Fabian Santillan (126) and Dylan Ranieri (132) next with 40 apiece. Ranieri, Cherokee Trail 126-pounder Drake Davis (37-12) and 152-pounder Abel Ambriz (35-14) all own the most number of decisions with 49 apiece. The wrestler with the least number of victories (four) and matches wrestled (six) is Rangeview sophomore 145-pounder Spencer Ohu, who missed nearly the entire season due to injury before returning just prior to regionals. The only Aurora wrestler in the state field is Vista PEAK senior 220-pounder Dechlyn Miller, a first-year wrestlers with a 12-15 mark.
・City wrestlers are involved in 32 first-round matches, which includes just one All-Aurora matchup. In one of the first matches of the preliminary round, Cherokee Trail sophomore Andrew Chilton and Eaglecrest sophomore Caeleb Knoll meet at 106 pounds. Chilton pinned Knoll in the opening dual match of the season Nov. 30 when they wrestled in the 113-pound weight class.
・Tidbits: With four qualifiers, Vista PEAK has the largest state contingent in program history, dating back to its beginning days in Class 3A. Among the Bison contingent, senior Tristan Curtis surpassed 100 career wins during the regular season and senior Jayden Smith can reach the milestone with three victories at state…Only one Aurora freshman qualified for state in Regis Jesuit 132-pounder Antonio Segura. The breakdown among qualifiers by other years — seniors 15, juniors 11 and sophomores six.
