DENVER — After finishing second as a freshman last year at the state wrestling tournament, Berthoud sophomore Julia Schnell had high expectations coming into this year’s event.
As the No. 2 seed at 120 pounds in Class 4A, she won her opening match with a fall in 55 seconds, getting off to a strong start. However, in her quarterfinal match, she was upset by Alex Traenkle of Manitou Springs with 14 seconds remaining in the bout.
That relegated her to the consolation bracket and a long road back to the third-place match. She answered every challenge put in front of her Friday and Saturday, however, eventually defeating Liberty’s Sky Richards with a 6-2 decision to finish third.
“It feels good to end with a win, but it’s definitely hard to expect to go to the finals and then losing in the quarters,” she said. “But it’s definitely a good challenge and I think it’s something that I can definitely improve off of. It gives me ammo for next year and offseason to get better.”
After losing Thursday morning, she came back to win twice Friday, both by fall, and then won her consolation semifinal Saturday morning in 1 minute, 35 seconds.
In the third-place match against Richards, she clinched her victory with a takedown late in the third period.
“Thursday was rough,” she said. “It was hard to get back in the mindset of I can still get third just because of being in the finals last year as a freshman. I had a good while to get my head right, and then I slept and then I was just ready to come back and maybe see her again and beat her if I could.”
She almost did get a rematch of her quarterfinal loss. Traenkle advanced to the consolation semifinals as well, but lost that match and then the fifth-place match after that.
Schnell wasn’t the only Spartan wrestling for third place. In the 3A boys division at 175s, junior Jaxon Ficarra made his way back to the third-place match after losing in the quarterfinals Thursday.
Ficarra’s tournament began with a first-round victory before he was pinned in 35 seconds in his quarterfinal match. He then earned major decision victories in the second, third and semifinal rounds of the consolation bracket to make it to the third-place match.
He was surprised he made it as far as he did and was pleased with how it ended up, even if he did lose a 5-2 decision to Jackson Shipfer of The Classical Academy in his final match.
“He’s a good guy,” Ficarra said. “He’s got good defense. Very fast for a 175er. But I still had fun. Still great competition. I’m still proud of myself.”
Ficarra was quick to give credit to his coaches, and teammate Donovan Farrell, who joined the Berthoud team this season after moving from Iowa. Farrell wrestled for the 3A 215s title Saturday night.
With another year of wrestling left, Ficarra is already looking forward to next season. He didn’t even qualify for state as a sophomore.
“Unbelievable confidence,” Ficarra said. “Knowing that the guy that just beat me is a senior and the other guy I lost to was a senior, if next year goes exactly how this year went, then I will probably be in the finals or get third, and I’m super excited for it.”
Three local wrestlers won their fifth-place matches Saturday morning.
In the 5A girls division at 100s, Loveland’s Amiyah McGee lost her consolation semifinal by slim 11-10 decision Saturday morning but bounced back to win the fifth-place match by fall in 2:11 over Kara Binali of Fountain-Fort Carson.
Thompson Valley’s Jackson Eversman also won his fifth-place match at 150s in Class 4A. He lost his consolation semifinal Saturday morning by a major decision but came back in the fifth-place match to defeat Eric Hansen of Mead by fall in 2:37.
Even though he ended his season and his high school career with a victory, it wasn’t the place he was shooting for after advancing to the semifinals along with his brother, Ty, on Friday. Ty wrestled for the 144s championship Saturday night.
“It’s better than a loss, but it’s still hard,” Jackson Eversman said. “I was just taking out a little anger on that last kid. I mean, I wasn’t mad at him, but it felt good to let a little bit out.”
Mountain View’s Kael Keutzer also won his fifth-place match, defeating Windsor’s Grad Agone in 17 seconds at 285s in 4A.
Keutzer battled his way all the back from a first-round loss Thursday, winning three matches Friday to earn a spot in the consolation semifinals. He lost by fall in that match but was able to regroup and make quick work of his final opponent to finish fifth.
Loveland’s Dominik Ortiz (120s in 5A) and Christian Carroll (144s in 5A), Mountain View’s Cameron Cosner (126s in 4A) and Resurrection Christian’s Josh Stockton (175s in 3A) all lost their fifth-place matches to end up finishing sixth.
