As Fossil Ridge continues to build their wrestling program up, the Sabercats took an important step after qualifying three wrestlers for state at regionals this past weekend.

The team traveled all the way to Littleton to Chatfield High School to compete in the region four tournament. 

Plenty of Fossil wrestlers had good days, with an additional five Sabercats finishing in the top six but falling just short of earning their shot at state. While it’s certainly a disappointing finish for the five wrestlers, they continued to fight and push through adversity, with some wrestling up to five matches over the two day span. 

The first Sabercat wrestler who qualified for state was 144-pounder Alex Husen. Husen lost his first match to Rock Canyon’s Alex McGowan after a tight 3-0 decision. The junior came back with a vengeance, defeating his next opponent in 38 seconds. Afterwards Husen narrowly pulled out the 4-3 decision victory against  Kaden Housego of Brighton.

These two wins led Husen to a spot in the third place match against Pine Creek’s Austin Perigo. But Husen’s winning streak came to an end after he lost the match 7-4. As a result he had one final match, a rematch against McGowan for a spot in the state tournament on the line. Husen rose to the occasion, smashing his opponent 11-0 on his way to his first every state appearance.

The second state qualifier was junior Max Buffington, also making his first appearance at Ball Arena. The 150-pounder started off his regionals similar to Husen, losing to Rock Canyon wrestler Kaden Rahne. After the initial setback Buffington returned with a vengeance, rattling off four consecutive wins to lock up third place in his weight class. 

But the standout performance came from senior heavyweight Thomas Iverson. Iverson cruised to the finals with two consecutive victories that lasted less than four minutes. 

“I think I wrestled pretty good up until my last match,” Iverson said. 

Unfortunately Iverson couldn’t bring home the gold, accidentally pinning himself to lose the first place match in the 285 division. But now Iverson is ready for the state tournament which begins on Thursday, February 16 down at Ball Arena in Denver.

“[I’m] just going out and having fun, no pressure anymore,” Iverson said. “Hopefully I can crack the top six, hopefully top two.”