The development of girls prep wrestling in Colorado in recent years continues at accelerate rapidly.
Since the sport officially held its first season sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association in 2020-21, depth and quality have taken big steps forward in Aurora and all over the state.
Colorado’s best have gradually registered their success on a national scale and made a splash earlier this summer as Colorado won the USA Wrestling Junior Greco dual national championship June 17-20 in Westfield, Indiana.
“It was obvious we have some of the best kids in the country in Colorado,” said Horacio Vialpando, who shared head coaching duties with Eric Heinz of Brighton.
“That’s something I’m always going to remember,” Vialpando added. “It was the first national championship that Colorado has ever won at a dual tournament, at least at the high school level to be part of the first title in girls history is pretty special.”
The Colorado team won all six of its matches in the Greco competition at the Grand Park Events Center and ended its title run with a 58-16 blowout win over Ohio Blue. To get there, however, the Colorado team had to get past a powerhouse California team in the semifinals.
The chance to wrestle for the championship seemed to be fading, as Colorado trailed by nine points with just two matches to go.
A win by fall from by Lilly Lundy (Lewis-Palmer) at 95 pounds narrow the gap to four points with Pomona’s Justice Gutierrez going for Colorado. The three-time state champion won by fall to give her team a dramatic 38-37 victory.
Team Colorado had plenty of Aurora area ties, starting with Vialpando, who has helped build a strong co-op program in Cherry Creek Schools based at Eaglecrest. Under his leadership, the Raptors finished fifth at the Class 5A girls state wrestling tournament in February at Ball Arena.
The state’s top lineup for the USA Wrestling dual competition — which also included participation in freestyle as well — included three of the Aurora area’s three best individuals, including a pair of two-time state champions in recently graduated Amelia Bacon of Vista PEAK Prep as well as Regis Jesuit senior-to-be Remington Zimmerer. Recent Eaglecrest grad Parice Jones also was on the title-winning team.
Zimmerer — who is now the back-to-back 5A state champion at 120 pounds — went 6-0 in the Greco tournament, which is the same record produced by Jones, who placed third at the 5A state tournament at 170 pounds, but wrestled in the 207 pound class for Team Colorado as she preps to wrestle in college at Baker University in Kansas.
Bacon finished with just a single loss in six Greco matches at 125 pounds, the weight class in which she won the last two state titles in Colorado ahead of a future career at Colorado Mesa University.
Vialpando had seen Zimmerer and Bacon go head-to-head with his Eaglecrest wrestlers, but it was different being around them for a whole tournament.
Zimmerer — who made the All-tournament team — impressed him with her resilience after some early difficulties.
“Remington had an amazing tournament,” Vialpando said of Zimmerer, who won a 7-0 decision in the championship dual. “She struggled a little with freestyle, but she really turned it around after she got a match or two under her belt. I was really happy to see her be able to figure it out and go out and battle to win some tough matches.
He also lauded Bacon’s team-first focus, noting she allowed herself to be taken down in a strategic move that resulted in a team win for Colorado over Pennsylvania during the freestyle competition. The Colorado team finished fifth in freestyle after losing a tiebreaker, while the Pennsylvania team it beat went on to win the championship.
“Amelia is one of the most unselfish humans I’ve ever met,” Vialpando said of Bacon, who went 47-0 in her senior season and finished 83-1 in her last two prep campaigns. She earned a win by fall in 21 seconds in the championship dual.
As for Jones — who also made the All-tournament team in Greco — Vialpando was happy to see her significantly better her performance last season at the same tournament.
Plenty of other Raptors got the chance to compete in the 16U and 14U portions of the tournament.
“It’s definitely going to be something I always remember,” Vialpando said.
With a short turnaround, many of the members of the Colorado team returned to the mats to prepare to compete in the Junior nationals in Fargo, South Dakota.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
