Meeker sends three to state

MEEKER I “We have one more going than we did last year, so that’s positive,” Meeker wrestling coach Joe Gutierrez said of the three Cowboy wrestlers who qualified for the Colorado State Wrestling Champion-ships at last weekend’s regional tournament in Palisade.
Freshman Cody Pfau, sophomore Justin Hardy and senior Pat Love qualified to wrestle in what is called the “Big Show,” as all schools from four classifications will begin wrestling today in the Pepsi Center in Denver.
“We had a terrible Friday night,” Gutierrez said of the first round of the regional tournament, which matched almost all Meeker wrestlers against No. 1 or No. 2 seeds. “We wrestled some better matches Saturday.”
Pfau finished fourth in the 103-pound bracket, as did Hardy at 160. Love placed fifth in the 152-pound bracket but earned a wrestle-back (opportunity to wrestle fourth-place wrestler for the final qualifying spot, if they have not wrestled earlier in the tournament).
“Pat wrestled well and it’s a tough way of making it, but he’s going,” Gutierrez said of his lone senior Cowboy competitor.
“Cody wrestled tough,” Gutierrez said. Pfau was defeated in the consolation championship, by another girl, Lauryn Bruggink, who also qualified for the state tournament last year as a freshman. No girl has ever won a match in the Colorado state wrestling tournament, a feat her coach believes Pfau can accomplish.
“She has a chance at winning some matches,” Gutierrez said of the scrappy freshman.
“Justin made some simple mistakes we can correct and he wrestled a lot better than he did last week,” Gutierrez said. “He seems to be coming on at the right time and if he goes out there with the right attitude, he could win some matches too.”
Wrestling starts today at 3 p.m.
“If we get some breaks and wrestle tough, we might surprise some people,” Gutierrez said.