State Wrestling Championships
The fire of a state champion. Sand Creek's Landon Drury was facing a three-time defending state champion. Here's what I think of your three time state champion. Drury beat, battered and bruised his way to a dominant win and the Class 4A, 144 pound weight class, "I'm happy. It's just a little milestone towards the top. I want to be a one Olympic champion. So this is just a stepping stone up to that. I know he was going for his fourth straight title. So I just put up the fours, and put it to sleep," says Drury.
It was the final high school match for Mesa Ridge's Isabella Cross and her mom slash coach Kim. Cross found herself down three nothing in the third round and then she decided she'd had enough of that nonsense, turned the tables and pinned her opponent. Isabella Cross ends her career with back to state titles and gets to share it with her mom, "There's a whole lot of excitement. I'm very excited, very proud of myself. It's just unbelievable. Doesn't feel real," says Isabella Cross. Her mom/coach Kim Cross adds "I knew she was going to come through. She was ready. All day today, she was like, I'm not worried. I got this, you know, she got her game face on and she knew she was going to do whatever it took to get that state title again."
Discovery Canyon's Mia Hargrove took home her second straight state crown tattooing her opponent into the mat en route to claiming the girls 115 pound title, "You know, I just knew I had to stick to the game plan due to my offense. It feels really good to win again under those bright lights. It's awesome. So my senior year, I knew I had to leave it all on the table to bigger and better things," says Hargrove.
We had an all Colorado Springs showdown in the Class 4A 157 pound weight class final. Falcon's David Burchett won a tough match over Coronado's Luke Diehl. Burchett is only a sophomore and already among the state's best. In Class 4A 165 pound weight class Genaro Pino picked his opponent apart like he was plucking a rose and once he realized he was a state champion, pure joy, "I did it for my mom all the time. I just wanted to point out her, you know, that, you know, she's my biggest supporter and then hugging my sister right after their my biggest supporters. And I just always want to do it for them because they always push me. And even though they may not seem like it, they do," says Pino.
