Wrestling: Coronado sleighs competition at UNC Christmas Tournament

GREELEY • Juniors Nick Burghardt and Nathan Burak won individual titles to lead Coronado to a dominant win Saturday in the 11th annual Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament.

The Cougars, who beat second-place Cheyenne Central of Wyoming 278-187 in the 57-team field, had six wrestlers take the mat in the final round. Nine Cougars placed in the top six in 14 weight classes.

“The whole team, everybody did a fabulous job,” Cougars coach Matt Brickell said. “With this (tournament) having 4A, 3A, you have tough kids all over. You don’t know what you’re going to get.”

The third-seeded Burghardt (11-0) fought through injury to get the first title for the Cougars, outlasting No. 1 seed Iver Sandoval of Centauri for a 4-3 decision at 152 pounds.

Burghardt needed a timeout after knocking heads with Sandoval midway through the match, but he managed an escape with a minute to go and held on for the win.

“I’m out of shape and I couldn’t see out of my left eye, so that mental toughness sort of kicked in at the end,” Burghardt said.

The top-seed Burak beat Cody Delabarre of Thomas Jefferson, the sixth seed, 17-1, nearly pinning him four times during the match. True to the Cougars approach, Burak was reserved regarding the teams’ performance.

“It’s a big praise to the Lord that we wrestled so good, but we have a lot of stuff to work on,” Burak said. “We want to peak at state, so this is important. It’s great to get some tough competition.”

Pine Creek finished fifth with 1501/2 points, led by champions Josh Martinez (112) and Geordan “Geo” Martinez (103, no relation). The seventh-seeded Geordan, a freshman, scored an 8-1 win over No. 4 Anthony DeLeon of Fort Lupton. Top-seeded Josh Martinez won with a 16-1 technical fall of No. 2 Mark Edmonds of Holyoke for his second consecutive title in the tournament.

“My coach always says you’re not a true champion until you defend you title,” he said.

Discovery Canyon junior Nick Adams knocked off two-time Class 2A state champion Chad Stroh of Holyoke to claim the 135 title. The third-seeded Adams scored a reversal with 6 seconds remaining in overtime for a 6-4 decision, which earned him the lightweight outstanding wrestler award for the tournament.

“When you’re in that position you don’t really think, you just wrestle,” Adams said. “I knew I was running out of time and I was just scrambling, trying to get points.”