A perfect storm is converging on Ball Arena.
Three returning state champions, including one who’s going to play quarterback in college, and another who won two gold medals for Team USA in the fall, are wrestling for the Class 4A title at 190 pounds. All three will likely advance to Friday night’s semifinals of the CHSAA state wrestling tournament. Only two of them will make the finals. Only one will have his hand raised on Saturday night.
Windsor sophomore Evan Perez, Mead senior Dalton Berg and Roosevelt senior Bronco Hartson, all with a chance to win gold, form a powerful, muscular trio that’s saltier than a Bavarian pretzel.
“You look at that group at 190 pounds and the first thing that comes to mind is that none of those guys ran from each other,” said Windsor co-head coach Ben Cherrington. “They could have gone up to 215, and that weight class might not have been as competitive, but all three are going after it at 190.”
Roosevelt coach Brandon Montoya recognizes that there is a fine line separating the three wrestlers.
“Those are three great wrestlers who all battle to the end,” Montoya said. “They’re all strong and physical and when they make their moves, there is power behind those moves. So, if you are not in the right position to stop it, you’re not going to stop it.”
What’s the key to winning it all?
“I think it’s all going to come down to the fine-tuning of wrestling,” Montoya said. “It’s about who’s going to have the better day on the mat and it’s about their preparation. That’s what the razor-thin difference is going to be. At this event, with all of this going on around them, it’s going to be about their mindset. That’s going to be the difference.”
Hartson, a senior who quarterbacked Roosevelt to its first Class 3A football state championship in 2022 and is headed to Colorado Mesa on a football scholarship, is the top seed. Perez and Berg sit on the other side of the bracket and will likely meet in the semifinals. Perez handed Hartson his lone loss this winter, winning a nailbiting, 3-2 decision at the Westminster Invitational in January.
“You have to beat the best guys to win state and I wasn’t going to dodge anybody,” Hartson said. “Having three state champions in the same bracket is special and it doesn’t happen very often. I just have to wrestle my kind of matches.”
Regarding his loss to Perez, Hartson said: “He’s really strong and he pushes forward all of the time. You have to get him out of your face. I think he wore me down a little bit, so I’ve really worked hard on my cardio the last few weeks.”
All three wrestlers dominated their foes in Thursday’s preliminary round: Hartson (32-1) pinned Skyline sophomore Jovanny Mendoza in a mere 44 seconds, Perez (38-2) pinned Pueblo East junior Dominic Benavidez in 47 seconds, and Berg (35-3) stuck Montrose senior Corbin Wallace in 1 minute, 25 seconds.
“The big thing is that I have to trust my training,” said Berg, who lost to Hartson twice this season. “I really have to push my pace against those guys. I didn’t push the pace hard enough against (Hartson) in those first two matches. But I definitely think l can win it.”
Last year, as a freshman, Perez dominated Evergreen’s Gabe Zimmerer for an 8-1 decision to win the Class 4A 165-pound title. In the fall, Perez won gold in both freestyle and Greco-Roman for Team USA at the U15 Pan American Championships in Panama City, Panama.
In last year’s 4A, 175-pound final, Berg beat Vista Ridge’s Solomon Arnds-Volcin, scoring a takedown in the first overtime period to win a 6-4 decision.
While Roosevelt didn’t repeat as state football champions in the fall, Harston still had an impressive senior season to earn his ticket to Mesa. He completed 135 of 216 passes for 2,072 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions for the Rough Riders. He ranked sixth in Class 3A in passing yards and also ran for 787 yards and six touchdowns.
Wrestling, of course, is a different animal than football, but Montoya believes Harston melds the two sports well.
“His experience of being a leader on the football field transfers to the wrestling mat,” Montoya said. “He’s used to being prepared and then going out and performing. His character, the person he is, feeds into all of that. He’s in control and he keeps his mind focused on the prize.”
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