championships
Cody Olivas
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DENVER -- Six Nucla High's Mustangs were competing in the Class 2A State Championships and the team came pretty close to having a perfect Thursday to open the tournament.
Five Mustangs advanced to today's quarterfinals and Ty Spangler almost made it six as NHS finished the opening day in fourth place behind tournament leader, Rocky Ford, Dove Creek and the defending champs, Paonia, in third.
Trailing 5-2 in his 145-pound contest with Holyoke's Josh Conde, Spangler put Conde on his back.
Before the referee counted to five, however, he stopped the match because Spangler was bleeding, awarding him two points instead of three for the near-fall.
Then, with only 10 seconds left in the match, Spangler put Conde on his back again, but was only able to hold him there for one-and-a-half swipes of the official’s hand so he he didn't get any points for a near-fall and lost, 5-4.
Besides that match, Nucla won every time it stepped on the mat.
Wray's Jeremy Lund took Tucker Lane (285) into the second period, but Lane threw him to his back with a lateral and pinned him.
Stryker Lane (189) locked up a cradle on Rocky Ford's Wad Laurent to pin him in the second period.
Ty Sickels sealed his victory at 119 pounds with a late reversal, 7-4, over Fowler's Brad Zemmer.
Brad Dillon (125) pinned Eads' Hayden Uhland in the second period.
Steven Falk trailed 7-6 going into the third period against Sedgwick County's Josh Harris.
Falk, however, took Harris down early in the period and rode him out to win, 8-7.
Rocky Ford captured the early lead Thursday following the preliminary round of the Class 2A Colorado state high school wrestling tournament at the Pepsi Center.
The Meloneers, who finished second last year, scored 30 points and advanced nine of their 13 wrestlers to the quarterfinals.
Dove Creek was in second place with 24 points, defending champion Paonia had 20, and Holyoke, Nucla and Wiggins were tied with 16 points apiece.
There were no major upsets in the Class 2A preliminaries as all eight returning state champions advanced, including Limon’s Kevin LeValley, the only wrestler in this year’s tournament attempting to win his fourth consecutive state title.
LeValley, who won championships at 119 pounds in 2004, 130 in ’05 and 140 last year, routed Grand Valley freshman Tyler Miles 15-0 Thursday. He will face T.J. Carter of Las Animas in the next round.
Six wrestlers also remain undefeated in 2A, and four of those are trying to repeat as champs.
The Class 2A championship quarterfinal round begin at 10 a.m. Friday.
— The Associated Press contributed to this article
well as the first two consolation rounds.
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