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Four Rifle Bears, one Glenwood Springs Demon perfect at Rumble

Joelle MilholmPost Independent StaffGlenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Kara K. Pearson Post Independent
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RIFLE – Five perfect marks through five matches.It’s hard to do in a 10-team wrestling tournament from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in a hot gym.Be that as it may, four Rifle Bears and one Glenwood Demon did it as they wrestled to 5-0 marks in the Rumble in the Rockies dual-team wrestling tournament on Saturday at Rifle High School.For Rifle, 135-pounder James Conrardy led the way with a three-pin day and outstanding lightweight wrestler of tournament honors. With three pins and one forfeit, his undefeated mark was on the line against Elizabeth. Conrardy, a junior, ended up winning 6-4 in overtime.

“He had one of the best matches of the day. That kid from Elizabeth was really tough and no one expected it,” Rifle head coach John Wisniewski said. “It was an amazing match. What was nice is that he found the will to win, and champions do that. They find any way possible.”Recording four falls was senior Abe Dennis, who also went 5-0 for Rifle, at the 160-pound level.Junior Dano Fugita, Rifle’s 145-pounder, was also perfect, racking up two pins, while sophomore Tad Davis (215) had three pins in his 5-0 day.”All the kids wrestled really good. Our upperclassmen showed it, our underclassmen showed,” Wisniewski said.

Greg Orosz set the pace for the Demons, going 5-0 in the heavyweight division with three pins. After starting the day 4-0, Orosz had to fight extra hard to win his last, which came in a 6-4 overtime battle. Orosz said his fatigue was minimal until the third period of the neck-and-neck match against Trae Borror of Pueblo West.”(My fatigue) wasn’t so bad until half way through the third period when he took me down,” he said. “But once I got into overtime I just knew I had to get it so I sucked up, gritted my teeth and went with it.”Orosz’s wrestling, along with a stellar 4-1 mark from Lance Tsosie, who recorded four pins, helped Glenwood finish fifth overall with a 3-2 record and 149 points.Glenwood started the day with a 3-0 record, then lost its last two matches. Granted they were to Pueblo West, the tourney’s winner, which is ranked No. 5 in state, and Berthoud, which is ranked No. 8 and took second. The Demons beat Nucla 40-32, Eaglecrest 39-30 and Elizabeth 34-29.



“We have been working really hard with conditioning and just going up against these bigger schools gets me ready for regionals,” Orosz said.Three other Demons turned in winning records, with Tyler Rossow (171), Matt Davis (140) and Greg Mills (119) all going 3-2.Rifle finished sixth overall with a 2-3 record and 207 points. Branton Brown (140 pounds) went 4-1 for the Bears, while Kiefer Deere (171) and Kyle Coombs (heavyweight) each finished 3-2.The Rumble was split into two five-squad teams, the east and the west. The east, made up of Berthoud, Pueblo West, Elizabeth, Nucla and Eaglecrest defeated the west, made up of Rifle, Glenwood, Moffat, Delta and Palisade 921-861.


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