Conflicting emotions: Erie's Salazar claims second wrestling title, Monarch's Trujillo-Deen falls short of first
Feb. 18—DENVER — Erie's Ramon Salazar, blood soaked into his teeth, sweat across his face, hugged his teary-eyed parents immediately following his second straight championship at the state wrestling tournament Saturday night.
Blood, sweat and tears — the price of admission for grappling glory. Its agony, too.
"It feels awesome," Salazar said, the rush of bliss not yet fleeting in the tunnels under Ball Arena after his win in the Class 4A 132-pound final.
The senior became the first wrestler at Erie High School to win two titles since Orlie Martinez in the early 80s. When reminded of it, he laughed about how long ago that was. He then continued to bounce around in celebration.
The opposite side of a win on this night is always harder to process. Monarch's Emilio Trujillo-Deen laid on his back for a moment or so longer after the final buzzer of his 5A 144 finals loss.
He'd gotten so close to gold over his high school career, finishing third as a sophomore and now second for two years in a row.
"I don't know how I feel. A little confused I guess," Trujillo-Deen said. "I'm very upset, but at the same time it's the end of the season, so I'm a little more upset about that. And also, like, not because part of my journey is done. It's just a mix of emotions."
Salazar beat Pueblo County's Izaiah Padilla in the finals by a 6-3 decision. He'd also beaten Padilla in the Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament finals back in December, grabbing a go-ahead two-point reversal with 37 seconds left in the third period to win by a 4-3 decision.
This one got a little dramatic, too.
Salazar went up 5-0 heading into the third before the Hornets wrestler got a questionable two-point reversal near the out-of-bounds line. Tigers coach Joe Ferrera said the officials gave him a football explanation, saying "his toes were still in".
Padilla got within 5-3 with 42 seconds remaining before Salazar held on.
The journey to title No. 2 hadn't been easy.
"At the start of the year, there was definitely some overconfidence on my part," Salazar said candidly. "I thought nobody could touch me. I wasn't showing as much respect to it as I should have been. But I found out later in the year that that needed to change through talks with my coaches and even my family."
Some 30 minutes later, it felt like Trujillo-Deen's time. Just as brutal as the sport can be, though, it wasn't. He lost to Pomona's Kalob Ybarra 6-0.
Before that, success at the state's largest spectacle of the year appeared to be on a crescendo for the Monarch senior. He'd lost to the eventual state champ in the semifinals his sophomore season, then in the finals last winter.
The last one, he said, had him up the next morning watching film, starting his preparation for one last shot at state gold. But for whatever reason, he said, he was just never able to close things at this tournament.
"I guess you can always look back at those videos and learn," he said. "And try and improve later."
Salazar and Trujillo-Deen are both undecided where they'll wrestle in college.
