State wrestling preliminaries Class 3A/2A

We start in 2A at 113 pounds, where Rocky Ford’s Dillon Jaramillo begins his state title defense with a first round pin in under a minute. Isaiah Gamez of La Junta moves onto round two with a first round pin of Sergio Mendoza, “Yesterday I had a little bit of nerves going, I was freaking out a little bit. But once you get in and get going it all goes away,” says Gamez.

at 120 pounds, Lamar’s Ethan Andrade was able to calm his nerves too, the junior picks up a pin in his third straight appearance at state. He’s never finished higher than fourth but he’s hunting a title this year, “Well I put in a lot of work this summer making sure I’m working towards it so it would mean a lot,” says Andrade.

John Mall’s A.j. Van-Matre is the defending champ at 132 pounds as a sophomore, he won his first round march but not without drama, “I had him in a cradle and I’d be stacking him and he’d be grabbing somewhere I probably shouldn’t say. Just forget about it, it’s over, it’s done, he’s out of the way, who’s next,” says the sophomore wrestler.

AT 132 pounds Buena Vista’s Anthony Quintana pushed his undefeated record to 38-0 with a first round win. Last year he finished fifth but he’s learned from that experience, “Wrestler harder, last year I did pretty crappy. I wrestler smarter when I’m calm, but on the inside I was pretty ticked off because I couldn’t do anything. I’d take him down and he’d just have his elbows in the whole time,” says Quintana.