The Pagosa Springs girls wrestling team finished 21st at the 4A State Championships last weekend in Denver behind Laykyn Baxstrom’s finish as the state runner-up.
Baxstrom and Kyley Matyniak were the two Lady Pirates who placed at the tournament.
Bella Jackson and Madisen Stretton both qualified, but did not place at the tournament.
Baxstrom wrestled at 190 pounds and finished as the state runner-up in the tournament.
She dominated through her first three matches, pinning her first opponent after two minutes and 25 seconds, her second after 58 seconds, and her third after 2:10 to make the finals.
In her final match she controlled the scoreboard, highlighted coach Dan Janowsky.
Baxstrom held a 1-0 lead with the end in sight, but got into a scramble late in the match, got in trouble and gave up a fall after 4:24.
“Of all her matches, I would say she controlled 99 percent of the action,” Janowsky said. “But, that’s the way wrestling is. If you have that much time of possession in a football game, you’re going to win, but that’s not necessarily true in wrestling because there’s that pin, that knockout that is always lurking.”
Baxstrom finished the season with a 28-2 record.
Matyniak wrestled at 130 and placed sixth at the tournament.
Matyniak pinned her first opponent after 2:43, but was pinned in her next match after 1:16 and moved to the consolation bracket. She won her first two matches in the consolation bracket, the first by a pin after 4:52 and the second by a 10-0 major decision. Matyniak lost in the consolation semifinals, getting pinned after 1:42. She ended the tournament with a loss in the fifth-place match by fall after 2:56, earning sixth.
“She had a great tournament,” Janowsky said. “She wrestled, stuck to the plan, kept her mind on the techniques and the positions and the score and the matches. She wrestled with some tenacity and fought hard for that medal that she got.”
Matyniak finished the season with a 33-14 record.
Janowsky noted Jackson and Stretton candidly struggled with the magnitude of the event.
Jackson wrestled at 105 pounds.
She was pinned after 37 seconds in her first match and after 5:39 in her second match.
She finished with a 25-12 record on the season.
Stretton wrestled at 110 pounds.
She lost her first match by a 7-4 decision and her second match by an 8-6 decision.
Stretton finished with a 32-9 record on the season.
Regardless of the result, Janowsky noted he feels that both girls made great progress and will continue to grow from the experience.
Every Lady Pirate who qualified for state this year will have a chance to qualify again next year and improve.
In fact, no Lady Pirate wrestlers are graduating this year which has Janowsky very excited for next season, he indicated.
“There’s no reason they can’t contend for a top-five finish at state if they continue to stay as dedicated as they are right now,” he said.
Janowsky suggested he is impressed with the growth and improvement that the team showed this year.
He emphasized that the girls all showed amazing attitudes and had amazing work ethics all season.
“Our girls, if you’ve dropped into a wrestling practice and looked at them, you might not recognize them because their faces are red and there’s sweat pouring off them and their hair’s all over the place,” Janowsky said. “They’re embracing the very hardest part of the sport like real champions, and they deserve all the respect in the world from the wrestlers anywhere in the world.”
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