February 28, 2019
Fossil Ridge High School sophomore, Cody Ginther, was one of four wrestlers to qualify for the State Tournament. He left the tournament after winning three out of his five matches, earning him the fourth place state title.
Beginning on Thursday, February 21 Ginther stepped up to the mat with confidence about competing in bout 55 against a Thornton High School wrestler. Starting the tournament on a strong foot, he won the match by major decision with a score of 12-2. Later, he revealed “…well I was really nervous, but you know, I got over the nerves after I started talking around to people and socializing ‘cause that really calms me down. So you know, I feel good.”
After his first victory he let on, “It was a lot of fun. I just went out there and wrestled my hardest. The kid tired out pretty quick so yeah, that was pretty nice of him.”
In regards to his then upcoming matches on Friday, February 22 he said, “oh yeah, definitely, I was born ready.”
As Ginther warmed up for his first match of the day, he was told “Just go out there and wrestle smart, please.” by Dalton Riba, one of the coaches. His match was won with a score of 6-4, and Ginther was also victorious in his second match of friday with a score of 7-5.
Saturday, February 23 Ginther strolled into the Pepsi Center with confidence. His final match was bout 385 which would decide the third place champion of the tournament.
He went up against a student from Pomona High School and the first period of his match was uncertain as his opponent scored two points from a takedown. Within seconds this was countered with a single point escape from Ginther. He gained momentum and was able to score another two points with a takedown as the clock read 3 seconds left. The clock ran out as Pomona’s competitor earned an escape, effectively tying up the match.
The second period began with an escape from his opponent, followed by another takedown. With seconds counting down, the match was concluded with a fall from Ginther.
After a sobering end to the tournament, he said that it was full of “ups and downs”. He elaborated with “I hate losing, but I’m proud of how I did in my last match…I can’t undo that so it is what it is.”
Ginther receives his award for fourth place.
Ginther holds high expectations for the performance of his team next season. He sternly added “You guys need to work harder and especially the incoming freshmen, our freshmen this year showed up and they didn’t feel like they needed to work hard and it really showed on the entire team- so wrestling’s weird, everything that you do in the room reflects on all of us and it either builds us up to be better or builds us to be worse so I think that our younger guys need to work harder and that includes me.”
Looking onward from this tournament he said that his one goal for next season is “Winning state.” He also added, “I’m basically going to spend every day working as hard as I can.” When asked for final commentary on the tournament or season, Ginther smiled and said, “I love you mom.”
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