DENVER | Six Aurora area wrestlers from three programs earned top-six places when the girls state wrestling tournament concluded Saturday night at Ball Arena.
Half of those placers came from Eaglecrest — which had three of its seven qualifiers made it onto the medal podium and had the program’s second all-time champion in senior Gianna Falise — while Regis Jesuit had two placers and Vista PEAK Prep one.
Two of the local placers made state finals in Falise and Vista PEAK Prep sophomore Amelia Bacon, while Regis Jesuit senior Alexis Segura (120 pounds) placed fourth and Raiders’ freshman Remington Zimmerer (105) and the Eaglecrest duo of senior Nyla Barmore (125) and sophomore Emma Roberts (235) each finished sixth at their respective weights.
In a tightly-packed top 10 in the team standings, the three placers helped coach Horacio Vialpando’s Eaglecrest team finish in seventh place and were just two points behind sixth-place Canon City. Coach Zach Zimmerer’s Regis Jesuit team tied for 22nd and coach Jakob Vargas’ Vista PEAK Prep team — with just one qualifier in Bacon — tied for 31st among 64 scoring teams.
Overland and Smoky Hill had one qualifier apiece, but neither scored a point.
COMPLETE RESULTS OF EACH AURORA GIRLS WRESTLER AT STATE, HERE
Eaglecrest’s top result came from Falise, a three-time qualifier who had not made the medal podium in either of her two previous trips. A win in the 190-pound semifinal Feb. 16 assured her a place and she took it all the way to the top with a win by fall over Douglas County’s Elizabeth Sandy.
Roberts lost both of her matches in her state appearance as a freshman, but she earned the chance to wrestle six times over three days in her return in the 235-pound weight class. Following a quarterfinal loss, Roberts (43-7) won twice on the backside to reach the medal round and finished in sixth place after a loss by fall to Palmer Ridge’s Erin Lumberg in the fifth-place match.
Barmore made the state tournament in her only year in Colorado after she arrived from Georgia, where she was a state placer as well. Barmore (who wrestled for Newton High School) placed fourth at 115 pounds last season in Georgia and she made the podium in her new state as she guaranteed herself a spot by winning her first two matches to make the semifinals.
She had a big smile on her face despite losses in her last three matches, capped by a 11-0 major decision in favor of Douglas County’s Zaret Silva Lopez in the fifth-place match. Barmore finished the season 28-14.
Segura missed state during her sophomore season due to injury, but finished on the medal podium for the third time in as many appearances at the tournament.
She was a state runner-up back in 2021 when state was held in Pueblo due to the coronavirus pandemic and also took second place last season. Segura’s bid to return to the final as a senior got derailed by Discovery Canyon’s Mia Thorne, who topped her 3-1 in the semifinals.
Segura bounced back with three consecutive wins on the backside of the bracket — all by fall — to reach the third-place match, where she again came up against Thorne, who had been defeated by Bacon with a title spot on the line. Thorne again had just enough to win the match, as her 2-1 decision put Segura in fourth place with a final record of 28-5.
Regis Jesuit’s second placing position came from Zimmerer, who posted a 30-8 record in her debut season in high school.
Three of those losses came in the state tournament, as she suffered a 15-8 loss to Bennett’s Katelyn Faczak in the opening round, but went on a three-match win streak (all pins) to reach the consolation semifinals. She lost a decision to Chatfield’s Lola Gonzalez, the eventual third-place finisher, then dropped a 9-4 match to Brighton’s Isabella Smouse with fifth-place on the line.
Bacon was the only state qualifier for the Bison and finished 3-1 to cap a 39-6 season that ended with a runner-up podium finish.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
