AURORA | The 2019 Class 5A state wrestling tournament at glance:
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Sentinel Prep Sports
∙ Eight Aurora programs — all Class 5A: Aurora Central, Cherokee Trail, Eaglecrest, Grandview, Hinkley, Overland, Regis Jesuit and Smoky Hill — will be represented at the 2019 state wrestling tournament, set for Feb. 21-23 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Nine city programs were represented at least year’s state tournament.
Grandview has the largest state contingent with nine state qualifiers, followed by Cherokee Trail (6), Eaglecrest (5), Overland (3), Regis Jesuit (2), Smoky Hill (2) and Aurora Central and Hinkley with one apiece.
Full Class 5A state tournament pairings, here
∙ The first round of the Class 5A state tournament begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, with matches running until they are completed. Championship quarterfinals take place at 12:45 p.m. Friday and championship semifinals at 6:45 p.m. The third round of consolation matches resumes at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by consolation semifinals, then third– and fifth-place matches. The Parade of Champions for the finalists in 2A-5A begins at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, preceding championship matches.
∙ 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 15 Aurora wrestlers making their way onto the medal podium and four others one match away from making the medal round depending on the flow of the tournament.
Yount’s projections have four Aurora wrestlers making the finals in Grandview’s Fabian Santillan at 138 pounds, Cherokee Trail’s David Rivera at 145 pounds, Eaglecrest’s Tyler Maccagnan at 152 pounds and Cherokee Trail’s Sam Hart at 220 pounds. He has only Santillan coming out victorious with a projection of a win over Poudre’s Alex Alvarez in the final, while he has Rivera falling to Pomona’s Theorius Robison, Maccagnan losing to Prairie View’s Austin McFadden and Hart dropping his final to Grand Junction’s Hunter Tobiasson. Last year, Yount correctly projected Santillan to win the 126 pound championship and he also pegged his finals opponent as well.
The pre-state picks project Aurora to have a top-six placers in nine of the 14 weight classes (save 106, 113, 160, 182 and 285 pounds) for 16 total. Yount has six Grandview wrestlers (out of nine state qualifiers) projected to place, led by Fabian Santillan (champion, 138 pounds) in addition to third-place finishers Alex Santillan (126 pounds), Dylan Ranieri (152 pounds) and Joe Renner (195 pounds) and fifth-place winner Brice Hartzheim (170 pounds). Cherokee Trail is projected to have three placers — out of six qualifiers — with David Rivera (145 pounds) and Sam Hart (220 pounds) picked to finish second and Brock Howard sixth at 195 pounds. Yount projects three of Eaglecrest’s handful of state qualifiers to place in Tyler Maccagnan (runner-up at 152 pounds), Caeleb Knoll (4th at 120 pounds) and Micah Sterling (4th at 195 pounds), while Overland also is project to have two placers (out of three state qualifiers) in third-place Grant Bradley (120 pounds) and fifth-place Miguel Mendoza III (132 pounds). Regis Jesuit (Antonio Segura, 3rd place at 145 pounds), Hinkley (Emery Bemis, 6th place at 170 pounds) and Smoky Hill (David Hoage, 4th place at 220 pounds) are expected to have one placer apiece.
One match away from making the medal round depending on the flow of the tournament are Cherokee Trail’s Andrew Chilton (113 pounds), Overland’s Isaiah Bradley (126 pounds), Grandview’s Matthew Frye (145 pounds) and Eaglecrest’s Osman Yigit Topuz (220 pounds).
As a team, Yount projects Grandview to finish in fourth place in the 5A team standings (the Wolves were ranked No. 2 for a good portion of the season), with Eaglecrest in 11th and Cherokee Trail in 12th.
∙ Sixteen of Aurora’s 29 qualifiers made it to the state tournament last season, with one of them a four-time state qualifier in Cherokee Trail senior David Rivera (145 pounds). Five Aurora wrestlers earned a third career trip to wrestle at the Pepsi Center in Grandview seniors Fabian Santillan (who missed 2016 due to a knee injury and is 7-2 in his career at state) and Dylan Ranieri (who is 7-5 in two previous trips to state and placed top-six both times), Eaglecrest senior Tyler Maccagnan (who went 1-4 combined the past two seasons) and Overland brothers Grant (a junior, who is 4-4 with a fourth-place finish in his two trips) and Isaiah Bradley (a senior, who is 2-4 over the past two seasons). Two-time qualifiers are Cherokee Trail’s Andrew Chilton, Eaglecrest’s Caeleb Knoll and Micah Sterling, Grandview’s Joe Renner, Alex Santillan, Matthew Frye and Brice Hartzheim, Hinkley’s Emery Bemis, Regis Jesuit’s Antonio Segura and Smoky Hill’s David Hoage. Fabian and Alex Santillan, Ranieri, Renner and Grant Bradley are returning state placers.
∙ Five Aurora wrestlers enter the state tournament with top seeds that come from winning regional championships in Eaglecrest’s Caeleb Knoll (the Region 4 winner at 120 pounds), Grandview’s Fabian Santillan (the Region 2 winner at 138 pounds), Cherokee Trail’s David Rivera (the Region 3 winner at 145 pounds), Regis Jesuit’s Antonio Segura (the Region 4 winner at 145 pounds) and Grandview’s Brice Hartzheim (the Region 2 winner at 170 pounds).
∙ The most Aurora state qualifiers appear in 145- and 220-pound weight brackets, which both include four city wrestlers. The 145-pound weight class includes four-time state qualifier David Rivera of Cherokee Trail, two-time state qualifiers in Matthew Frye of Grandview and Regis Jesuit’s Antonio Segura, who is set to meet first-timer Werals Niyangabo of Aurora Central in the opening round. Frye, Segura and Niyangabo are in the upper half of the bracket, while Rivera is in the lower. The 220-pound weight class includes two-time state qualifier David Hoage of Smoky Hill, who is joined on the top side of the bracket by first-timers Angelo Falise of Grandview and Eaglecrest’s Osman Yigit Topuz — who will meet in the opening round — while the bottom half of the bracket includes first-time qualifier Sam Hart of Cherokee Trail.
・ Grandview senior Fabian Santillan has the most wins among any of Aurora’s state qualifiers with 44 (against three losses), while Cherokee Trail senior David Rivera is next with 38, followed by Overland’s Miguel Mendoza III and Eaglecrest’s Tyler Maccagnan with 37 apiece. Santillan and Smoky Hill’s David Hoage have the fewest losses with three, while Eaglecrest’s Caeleb Knoll and Overland’s Isaiah Bradley have lost just four times. Every Aurora state qualifier has a winning record, while Eaglecrest sophomore Kyle Maccagnan has the fewest numbers of decisions with just 15 (9-6 record).
・City wrestlers are involved in 27 first-round matches, with two All-Aurora matchups as Regis Jesuit’s Antonio Segura and Aurora Central’s Werals Niyangabo meet at 145 pounds and Grandview’s Angelo Falise and Eaglecrest’s Osman Yigit Topuz square off at 220 pounds. Topuz pinned Falise in the third period of their meeting during a Centennial League dual match on Jan. 31.
・The breakdown of Aurora state qualifiers by years: seniors 14, juniors 8, sophomores 4 and one freshman (Grandview 220-pounder Angelo Falise).
