State wrestling highlights: Pueblo East back on top, De’Alcapon Veazy and Isaiah Harrison dominate, and more storylines from Ball Arena

Highlighted by two senior champions and a hopeful future four-timer, Pueblo East re-asserted itself on Saturday at Ball Arena.

The Eagles won their third title in the last four years after finishing second to Mead last season. Senior Julian Espinoza won at 126 pounds, sophomore Deven Lopez won at 132 and senior Niko Fernandez won at 138 as Pueblo East placed 10 of its 13 qualifiers.

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“The key to our program is iron sharpens iron,” Pueblo East head coach Tyler Lundquist said. “The senior class, they only know state championships or state runner-ups. They know the work that needs to be done. The new kids coming in, they either have to get better, or they get beat up all day. And we just keep that ball rolling.”

Lopez cruised to a 9-4 decision over Palisade’s Kadin Mulford. That put the sophomore halfway to the four-peat after a crown at 126 last year, despite wrestling this weekend with a ruptured tendon in his right middle finger.

“We’re just gritty, hard workers who don’t come from much, but we’re willing to go out there and put our all into it,” Lopez said. “That’s what matters most at the end of the day.

“… People have said I should be a four-timer since before I got to high school. Everyone expects so much out of me and I want to prove them right.”

In the last calendar year, Lopez took third at Fargo Nationals in Greco-Roman, fifth at high school nationals in Virginia Beach, and third at folkstyle nationals.

“I’m looking to do even greater things this upcoming summer,” Lopez said.

Big-school Most Outstanding Wrestlers. Ponderosa senior De’Alcapon Veazy and Mountain View senior Isaiah Harrison were named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler in Class 5A and Class 4A, respectively.

Veazy, who was not eligible to wrestle on varsity last season after transferring from Fort Wayne Snider, was unstoppable. He tech-falled his first opponent, Chaparral’s Angus Garvey, then had first-period pins of ThunderRidge’s Sloan Schilling in the quarterfinals and Poudre’s Ryder Clarkson in the semifinals.

His 190-pound finals opponent, Erie’s Carson Hageman, didn’t fare much better as Veazy pinned him in the second period. The Michigan commit came up just short of his vow to “pin everybody” in the tournament, but was satisfied with his performance as he achieved his first state title. Veazy was fourth and runner-up in his two seasons competing in Indiana.

“I held (Garvey) there for a good minute, and I thought I had the pin — he was pretty stuck, if you ask me,” Veazy said with a smile. “It felt good to come out here and show off the hard work I’ve been putting in, and that it’s paying off.

“These last two years were just in preparation for the next level. No time was really wasted (from being ineligible due to a CHSAA ruling), and more opportunities opened up even though I wasn’t able to compete last year. … I believe I can go out there to Michigan and make a run my freshman year.”

As for Harrison, he became the first Mountain View wrestler to win three state titles with his 21-3 dismantling of Palisade’s Teagan Young in the 120-pound finals. That tech fall followed a 43-second pin in the semifinals and a pair of tech falls (18-3 and 17-2) in the first two rounds.

The performance capped a sparkling 53-0 season. The Wyoming commit said his dedication to the sport changed after placing fifth at state as a freshman.

“My freshman year, I wasn’t quite mature yet and I didn’t take the sport very seriously,” Harrison said. “… I also wasn’t taking school very seriously at the time and didn’t have the best grades. My coaches talked to me and really motivated me to do better in school, and told me that wrestling could take me places if I bought in. So I did.”

After Harrison’s first state title, he took second at Fargo Nationals that summer, and he hasn’t looked back.

VomBaurs get 10. Severance’s Drake VomBaur claimed a 4-1 decision at Class 4A 113 pounds over Pueblo East’s Manuel Amaro, giving the sophomore his second state title.

Between him, brothers Will and Vance (former Windsor stars) and their dad Ben (a former prep standout in Washington), the storied VomBaur wrestling family now has 10 high school state titles to their name.

Drake said his goal is to add muscle this summer — to move up a couple of classes, but also for two separate but equally important reasons.

“I don’t want to be a little man forever — I’m going to want a wife someday, and she’s not going to want some shrimp,” VomBaur quipped. “And I need to beat my dad.”

Double Bacon. Vista PEAK Prep juniors Ian Bacon and Amelia Bacon became the first Colorado brother-sister twin tandem to claim state titles in the same year.

Ian topped the Class 5A 120-pound bracket, beating Cherokee Trail’s Cooper Mathews with a second-period pin. Shortly after, Amelia won the Class 5A 125-pound bracket, triumphing over Castle View’s Zaret Silva Lopez in a 5-4 thriller.

After Amelia’s win, she found her brother/practice partner in the underbelly of Ball Arena and cried tears of joy in his arms.

“When Ian pinned (Mathews), I just started crying,” an emotional Amelia said. “I don’t even know how I composed myself to wrestle.”

But she did, and pulled out a dramatic reversal from the bottom position with 11 seconds left in the third period. That broke a 3-3 tie.

“I knew if every once in a blue moon I could escape from Ian, I could do it in that moment and get a lead,” Amelia said. “I have the best training partner in the world.”

“I have the best training partner in the world,” Ian clapped back.

The twins’ big moment came only a few years after they started taking the sport seriously in the summer following eighth grade. Ian went 1-2 at the state tournament each of the last two years before emerging this weekend, while Amelia lost in the consolation round as a freshman and then was runner-up last year at 120.

Ian and Amelia are basically the same weight, and also have the same shoe size (7.5) and height (5-foot-5). Now, they both have gold, too.

“We’re going to work as hard as we can to do it again next year,” Ian said.

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