Turner places 5th at state

MEEKER I Seven Barone Middle School wrestlers traveled to Denver on Friday and Saturday for the Middle School State Tournament, held at the Western Stock Show events center Friday and Saturday. Each wrestler was placed in a 64-man bracket with a double elimination format. The tournament was loaded with extremely talented kids with no limitation on size of school, affiliation with club or matches wrestled in the year.
Some participants wrestling with private club teams had upwards of 100 matches on the year and several wrestled in the Rocky Mountain Nationals events.
With competition this tough, just to win a single match is an accomplishment and to place in the top seven is very commendable. All wrestlers won at least one match for Meeker.
Caleb Bradford got through the first round before being defeated, then he fell again in the consolation match.
Josh Cochran also made it through the first round before matching up against an extremely tough kid in the second round. He battled back Saturday morning, staying alive for two more matches but falling short of the medal round.
Hunter Garcia also wrestled tough Friday night but lost a heart breaker on Saturday that would have given him an opportunity to make the podium. The match went into overtime, giving both kids one minute to wrestle from the bottom. The match remained tied after both periods, coming down to sudden death triple overtime with his opponent winning the choice of position.
Garcia held the guy down for nearly the entire time and locked his hands when he thought he was in the correct position. The result was a penalty point for the other kid. The match was a great show of effort by Garcia.
Chase Rule had several close matches, advancing past the first round, losing in the second, winning his first consolation match and falling in a barn burner at the very end of the match. He was up against some very tough kids at 152 pounds and proved he is going to be a force next season.
Cousins Sheridan Harvey and Casey Turner wrestled extremely tough over the weekend with Turner placing fifth, the best finish among Meeker wrestlers. Turner lost in the third round in a close 2-4 match before coming back through the bracket to get into the medal rounds. He handled his opponent in his final match, pinning his opponent.
Harvey had placed fifth in the event a year ago and fell one match short of placing again this year. He used his signature cradle to pin his first opponent and had the kid that beat him in a bind for a time before falling in the match. Harvey came back to pin two more wrestlers.
All the Meeker wrestlers gained excellent experience in a big arena against extremely tough competition. The future looks very bright for the future of the program.
Coaches J.C. Watt and Lee Overton volunteered their time to travel on their spring breaks to coach the kids.