Night one of the State High School Wrestling Tournament
Rob Namnoum
The Sand Creek Scorpions came out stinging. Achilles Evans is giving up thirty pounds in the 215 pound weight class but that didn’t stop him from pinning Palmer Ridge’s Skyler Tolbert in the opening round. The Scorpion wins. Evans later advanced to the state semifinal, “I’m just my mindset and I’m just practicing hard with my coaches is the reason why I can go from one weight and 184 to wrestling to fit in and still winning. It gives me more confidence. I’m going to win the tournament this year,” says Evans.
Another Scorpion wins and this time it’s freshman Karris Carter who pinned her opponent in the first round to advance to the state semi’s and you wouldn’t know how ferocious she is by talking to her, “Oh, I’m so excited. I didn’t think I was going to make it this far my freshman year. It’s just part of the fun, you know, just having fun with the game and just wrestling the best you can,” says Carter.
Coronado Bella Arellano is off her rocker. After pinning her first opponent in the second round. She turned around and did it again by pinning Widefield’s Angelina Roller to clinch a spot in the semi’s. Once again. this is someone who can flip the rage switch at will because she has a pretty tempered mindset heading into Friday, “Take it one match at a time, period at a time, and stay confident and stay moving. I know I can work through anything if I’m down. I can always come back. So staying calm and composed,” says Arellano.
Then there’s Widefield’s Manny Mota, great name, in fact, it’s an exceptional name. Anyway, his name is exceptional as his skill. He won a tough match over Pueblo East’s Noah Sanchez despite getting bloodied up during the match. Luckily, winning is in his DNA, “I mean, it was a distraction, but I just had to keep pushing through it. And especially because I was down or we were tied up going in the third, just kind of keep wrestling,” says Mota.