MEEKER I Cowboy sophomore JR Crawford won two matches at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships last weekend in the Denver Pepsi Center and was one win away from getting into the medal round.
“He was disappointed he didn’t place but he had a good season,” head coach Joe Gutierrez said of his 189-pounder. “He was giving up a lot of weight (Crawford weights about 172) but he stepped it up.”
Crawford qualified as a regional runner-up and won his first match against senior Levi Campfield of Wray, 10-8 in overtime. Crawford was pinned in the quarterfinal round by undefeated (35-0) freshman Johnny Loflin of Baca County, who went on to finish fifth in the 189-pound bracket.
Crawford then recorded a major decision (11-2) over senior Ryan Mangum of Mountain Valley in the quarterfinal round of the consolation bracket, before getting pinned by Colton Wyatt of Ignacio at the buzzer, ending the second period and Crawford’s season.
“I’m glad he’s not content,” Gutierrez said. “Hopefully he’ll get in the weight room and get more mat time this summer. It would be fun to watch him wrestle on Saturday night (state finals) in the next couple of years.”
Gutierrez is also hoping freshman qualifier J.C. Henderson makes it to the state finals in the next three years.
Henderson finished fourth at the regional tournament at 112-pounds, which matched him up against regional champion Seth Harrington of Sedgwick in the first round of the state tournament.
“He hit a No. 1 seed right off the bat but wrestled pretty good with him,” Gutierrez said.
Henderson dropped into the consolation bracket and lost 3-4 to Devon Torgerson of Fowler, ending his first high school season.
“J.C.’s second match was close and he gained a lot of experience,” Gutierrez said. “Hopefully, he too will be wrestling out there on Saturday night in the next three years.”
Gutierrez hopes all his wrestlers will put in the extra time in the weight room and on the wrestling mat to qualify more wrestlers for the next year’s state tournament, as Meeker had no seniors on the team this year and all will be back next year.
“There is a saying, ‘summer-time wrestling makes winter-time champions,’” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said one of the highlights was getting to visit with 2008 Olympic champion Henry Cejudo and his brother Angel before Friday’s semifinal round. The Cejudo brothers each came to Meeker to host wrestling clinics in the past and both are residents of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, preparing for the 2012 summer Olympics.
Gutierrez was thankful to his assistant coach Lee Overton.
“It’s fun working with Lee, he’s a great assistant,” Gutierrez said of the former state wrestling champion. “The kids really respect him. He’s the head coach at the middle school and helps bring the program along.”
MEEKER I Cowboy sophomore JR Crawford won two matches at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships last weekend in the Denver Pepsi Center and was one win away from getting into the medal round.“He was disappointed he didn’t place but he had a good season,” head coach Joe Gutierrez said of his 189-pounder. “He was giving up a lot of weight (Crawford weights about 172) but he stepped it up.”Crawford qualified as a regional runner-up and won his first match against senior Levi Campfield of Wray, 10-8 in overtime. Crawford was pinned in the quarterfinal round by undefeated (35-0) freshman Johnny Loflin of Baca County, who went on to finish fifth in the 189-pound bracket.Crawford then recorded a major decision (11-2) over senior Ryan Mangum of Mountain Valley in the quarterfinal round of the consolation bracket, before getting pinned by Colton Wyatt of Ignacio at the buzzer, ending the second period and Crawford’s season.“I’m glad he’s not content,” Gutierrez said. “Hopefully he’ll get in the weight room and get more mat time this summer. It would be fun to watch him wrestle on Saturday night (state finals) in the next couple of years.”Gutierrez is also hoping freshman qualifier J.C. Henderson makes it to the state finals in the next three years.Henderson finished fourth at the regional tournament at 112-pounds, which matched him up against regional champion Seth Harrington of Sedgwick in the first round of the state tournament.“He hit a No. 1 seed right off the bat but wrestled pretty good with him,” Gutierrez said.Henderson dropped into the consolation bracket and lost 3-4 to Devon Torgerson of Fowler, ending his first high school season.“J.C.’s second match was close and he gained a lot of experience,” Gutierrez said. “Hopefully, he too will be wrestling out there on Saturday night in the next three years.”Gutierrez hopes all his wrestlers will put in the extra time in the weight room and on the wrestling mat to qualify more wrestlers for the next year’s state tournament, as Meeker had no seniors on the team this year and all will be back next year.“There is a saying, ‘summer-time wrestling makes winter-time champions,’” Gutierrez said.Gutierrez said one of the highlights was getting to visit with 2008 Olympic champion Henry Cejudo and his brother Angel before Friday’s semifinal round. The Cejudo brothers each came to Meeker to host wrestling clinics in the past and both are residents of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, preparing for the 2012 summer Olympics.Gutierrez was thankful to his assistant coach Lee Overton.“It’s fun working with Lee, he’s a great assistant,” Gutierrez said of the former state wrestling champion. “The kids really respect him. He’s the head coach at the middle school and helps bring the program along.”
Meeker’s Barone Middle School wrestlers took second place in the Hayden tournament with only 17 wrestlers. The first place team had 32. The Meeker boys added points with each match.
MEEKER — It was a tough week for the Meeker High School wrestling team and after losing big to Moffat County and Rifle, the Cowboys competed in the Northwest League tournament, where they finished fourth […]
MEEKER I The number 17 ranked Cowboys took fourth in their district tournament after two very tough and heartbreaking losses. Meeker began as the number one seed, bypassing the Tuesday pigtails and moving straight to […]
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
Additional Cookies
This website uses the following additional cookies:
Google Adsense
Coupons.com
Facebook
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!