Ian Bacon wrote a note to himself that he had on the wall at his house this wrestling season with two goals.
“Love Jesus, be a state champion,” the note read.
Bacon’s faith is evident, so he had that one checked off the list already and he added the other other half Feb. 15 in one of the most eyebrow-raising results at the Class 5A boys wrestling state tournament.
“I wrote state champ because that’s what every kid says, but I didn’t actually think it,” he said. “Then as the time started coming, I was like ‘alright, I’ve got to start believing in myself if it’s going to happen.’ I’m really happy that it did.”
As Bacon stood in the bowels of Ball Arena, the fact that he pinned Cherokee Trail sophomore Cooper Mathews — who was trying to become a two-time state champion — just a few momentous minutes earlier in an all-Aurora 5A 120-pound final still hadn’t completely registered.
After all, it had been just a little over two months since he’d been pinned twice and lost three times during an eighth-place finish at the University of Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament. He was a new wrestler once the new year began, however, as he won five of the six tournaments he entered ahead of state.
Once at Ball Arena — where he was 1-2 and didn’t place in the 4A state tournament last season — he put on a show when the program moved up to the 5A ranks.
In the quarterfinals, he trailed by a point in the closing seconds against Ponderosa’s Jeremiah Waldschmidt (a state runner-up last season) before he rolled over and earned a win by fall before the clock hit zeroes. He went against a 2023 state champion and 2024 runner-up in Zaidyn Quinonez of powerhouse Pomona and won an 11-6 decision.
That put him into the final against Mathews, last season’s 106-pound 5A state champion who he knew from club wrestling. That didn’t matter either, as he broke a scoreless tie with an escape point early in the period, then took down and proceeded to pin Mathews.
“He couldn’t have had a harder three matches,” Vista PEAK Prep coach David Benedict said. “I don’t think you could have written it any different way. …When he’s wrestling on his level, nobody can match him.
“I almost passed out at the end. I was so excited when got that last takedown, things went a little blurry, but people told me I jumped really high.”
Tim Yount of On The Mat recognized Bacon’s recent surge as his pre-state predictions had Bacon placing third with Quinonez as state champion and Mathews as runner-up. That’s a far cry from Week 1, when Yount had Bacon ranked No. 7 at 126 pounds.
Weights shift throughout the course of the season, but those that win state championships typically stay at or near the top of the rankings. Bacon become one of the exceptions, as the motivation of keeping up with his sister and his internal drive pushed him to new heights.
Bacon could see the growth in himself in how he handled his state matches this season.
“My biggest problem last season was I was thinking during my matches,” he said. “I would be like ‘I have to start moving my feet’ and all of a sudden, he (his opponent) is on my leg. So not thinking and just flowing really helped me. I also wasn’t nervous. I went out there in the Parade of Champions, took a look at the crowd and then I decided I wasn’t going to think about the crowd and just go out and wrestle.”
Bacon (who won his final 20 matches of the season and finished 43-7) said he didn’t hear the reaction when he finished the match, but was able to appreciate it fully when his sister’s match was through as he went crazy in the stands.
Once she watched her brother win, Amelia Bacon returned to the back hallways at Ball Arena to get into the zone for her match against Castle View sophomore Zaret Silva Lopez, who had upset predicted winner Alora Martinez of Pomona in overtime in the semifinals.
Bacon had pinned Silva Lopez twice during the season — including just a week earlier in the Region 2 championship match — but she knew that winning a third match against another elite wrestler is extremely difficult.
“She’s an incredible wrestler and she has so much aura,” Bacon said of Silva Lopez. “I have the utmost respect for her. I knew it was going to be tough, that’s why we come here, to write those tough matches. …I just thought of it like regionals all over again with a bigger crowd. I just had to have confidence in myself and the hard work and winning is just a byproduct of that.”
In her second state championship match (she lost a decision to Vista Ridge’s Hayden Newberg, who won this season’s 135-pound title as well), Bacon worked a late reversal to break a 3-3 tie and held on for a 5-4 victory. It finished off a 36-1 season in which her only loss came to Martinez, who beat her 5-1 at Douglas County’s Tiara Challenge.
When it was over, she jumped into the arms of first-year head coach Ashley Jaramillo then found Ian and gave him a hug. After the medal podium, she went to find her dad as well as her mom, Dana, who was understandably overcome by emotion watching her kids throughout the tournament.
Later, Amelia gave Ian a hard time because he had edged her to make history as the school’s first state champion.
“I was like ‘Darn it, Ian, you did it before me!’” she said with a smile. “I’m just so proud of him, but he’s always going to be like ‘I did it first!’”
Ian had come to that realization a little bit earlier and it definitely brought a smile to his face.
“I’m the first, I beat Amelia!” he said with a laugh.
Benedict — also Vista PEAK Prep’s athletic director — saw a state championship (two) finally come for the school after some close calls in the past. Most recently, Ezekiel Taylor finished second at 190 pounds at the 2023 state tournament at the same time Leilani Caamal was a runner-up in the girls tournament.
“I’m just so stoked, those two are the hardest working duo,” he said. “They are such an example for our team and our school. These are the kinds of things that are the ultimate recruiting tool to get other kids to come out.”
On the boys side, Ian Bacon was the only one of Vista PEAK Prep’s three qualifiers to win a match and his 26 points put the Bison 22nd among 46 scoring teams in the 5A standings.
Contrast that with the girls, which saw junior Parice Jones (190) and sophomore Khloe Yizar (235) each place fourth and the team finish seventh. Six of the Bison’s seven state qualifiers figure to return next season and will have a state champion in the room in Amelia Bacon.
“I guess the biggest word would be proud,” Jaramillo said. “I had two first-year wrestlers make state and I’m incredibly proud of my team. If there’s anything they know how to do, it’s work hard. They are the ones that do this, I’m just the girl in the corner. …Of course, Amelia is a beacon. She’s just a light. She’s a pivotal aspect to growing women’s wrestling.”
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
