Oliver rolls to easy victory
Leading the Panthers charge was 182-pound senior Seager Oliver (35-3), who looked every bit the part of a defending state champion throughout a pin victory over Colorado Springs Christian High School’s Matt Snow (19-18).
“I felt great, and my conditioning was good,” said Oliver. “I was confident and came in and controlled the match the whole time.”
After jogging in place with a focused look on his face in the moments leading up to the match, Oliver wasted no time in taking Snow to the ground after a double leg shot and one-leg takedown 10 seconds into the first period.
By the time the first period ended, Oliver had built a 6-0 lead and after starting on the bottom and escaping early in the second period, Oliver took Snow down and scored four points to move ahead 11-0.
Seemingly content with his first two periods, Oliver finally grabbed Snow from behind and pinned him with 24 seconds left in the second period.
“I didn’t go out there and pin him right away,” said Oliver. “I was wanting to wrestle and lose some weight for tomorrow’s weigh-in.
Oliver said that between now and tomorrow morning’s quarterfinals match, he plans to sleep, eat and workout.
“We wake up early in the morning and hit a workout before we weigh in,” said Oliver. “We eat the same meal and follow the same routine every day. We stick with what works.”
Oliver will wrestle Eaton High School’s Colton Ingram (23-13) in the quarterfinals sometime after 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Justice Ramos hampered by injury in loss
For M-CHS’s 152-pound senior Justice Ramos (26-18), a first-round matchup against Eaton High School’s Rusty Lohr (31-8) resulted in an 11-3 loss.
It was Ramos’ toughness that stood out however, as the senior battled a painful right knee injury from start to finish.
“It just takes too much torque to wrestle,” said Ramos, who was still in obvious pain more than 15 minutes after his match.
Throughout the early stages of his match, Ramos went toe-to-toe with Lohr in a first period that ended with the M-CHS senior trailing 2-1.
After being taken down early in the second period however, Ramos began to experience significant pain, which caused the match to be delayed for 1 minute and 48 seconds.
Although Ramos battled hard throughout the third period, his knee injury proved too much to overcome.
If Ramos is able to wrestle tomorrow, he will take on Mullen’s Connor Hart (19-9), who lost 15-4 to Colorado Springs Christian High School’s Connor Craddock (28-5) in the first round.
Andrew Finch pinned early
Competing in the first Colorado state tournament of his high school career, 160-pound senior Andrew Finch (18-17) got off to a rough start.
Facing off against Brush High School’s Alec Peterson (36-7), Finch was pinned after being taken down midway through the first round.
Finch will face off against Denver North’s Nick Montez tomorrow sometime after 10 a.m. on Feb. 19.
Josh Ramos loses in first round
Wrestling in his first high school state tournament, M-CHS’s 138-pound sophomore Josh Ramos (26-18) was pinned by Platte Valley’s Ryan Waite (39-7) in the first period of his first-round match.
With the loss, Josh Ramos moves into the consolation bracket and will face Dolores Huerta’s Zach Zamarippa (12-14) on the morning of Feb. 20.