Photo by Tamie Meck

The Paonia Eagles pose for a team photo after setting a school and state record for taking the most wrestlers to a state meet. Last week’s accomplishment was the first time in school history that the Eagles have qualified all 14 athletes for the state meet this week at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The feat marks the second time in the state’s history that a team has advanced all 14 of its team members. Rocky Ford was the first team to take all 14 back in 2006.

This ties the old state record, according to Bert Borgmann, assistant commissioner for the Colorado High School Activities Association. The only other team to qualify 14 on record was Rocky Ford coach Mike Jurney's 2006 team.

It's a very notable achievement, said Borgmann. "This will go into the record books as a tie."

The Eagles scored 282.5 points to win their fifth consecutive 2A Region 1 title, with Dove Creek placing second with 158 points. Paonia sent 12 into the finals and claimed six regional championships.

Winning regional titles were freshmen Josh Altman (106, 27-11) and Jesse Reed (113, 34-5), sophomore Ty Coats (132, 32-8), seniors Adrian Lopez (138, 31-9) and Kyler Bear (160, 33-7), and sophomore Tony Darling (285, 29-4). This was the second regional title for Lopez.

Bear, who was seeded first, was almost upset in the championship round by No. 3 seed Wyatt Wallace of Dolores.

"That was pretty intense," said Bear, who went back and forth with Wallace for the first two rounds, then looked as if he was done for. "He had me on my back. He about had me pinned, actually. It was pretty close."

Bear then got a reversal that surprised even him, and he went for the kill. "He just let his head in there, I stuck his head under, put him in a head lock" and got the pin in 5:37.

"I thought it was going to be determined by points the way it was going," said Bear, who placed fourth at regionals in 2011.

Blake Duval (120, 19-9), Cody Clawson (126, 18-14), Dustin Braslin (145, 26-14), Morgan Rieder (182, 29-6), Joel Simianer (195, 11-18) and Myles Cumpston (220, 30-4) were runners-up. Cumpston is seeded second at state behind Norwood's Ty Laframboise, who defeated him 5-3 in the championship round.

Of his four losses in the 2011-12 season for Cumpston, two were to Laframboise.

Two Paonia wrestlers lost in early rounds and had to wrestle back.

Head coach Andy Pipher said he had no doubt that the two who had to wrestle back would do just that.

After getting pinned in the third round by Derrick Richard of North Park, 152-pound Jorge Quinonez needed a win over Kolby Starks of Norwood to advance. He said he hadn't wrestled his best in his first match and was determined to win.

"I was thinking I'm pinning this kid as fast as I can," said Quinonez of Starks. "Going into this match I just thought, I'm gonna gas it in the third. I'm going as fast as I can and I'm gonna get him."

Quinonez pinned Starks in 2:30, then went on to defeat Colton Coombs of Rangely to place third.

KC Christian was paired against number two-seeded Brent Harris in the semifinals, and lost 4-0. Christian needed a win over Dolores to advance, and tore into Griffen Williams, pinning him in 21 seconds. He went on to place fourth.

Bear summed up the day nicely. "We got 12 kids in the finals. That's pretty cool. We've got all 14 going to state, no wrestle-backs, so what else can you ask for?"

The previous school record for number of state qualifiers was 12 in 2004 and 2011. Pipher was pleased to qualify his entire team, but remained cautious. "It's not the quantity that counts," he said following the awards ceremony.

As for that 2006 Rocky Ford team, they didn't win the state tournament. They placed second by 3.5 points to Paonia.

State schedules, pairings and brackets are available at www.chsaa.org.