Mead captures first wrestling state championship in school history

DENVER – After a dominant performance leading into the finals of the 2024 CHSAA state wrestling championships on Saturday night, Mead left little doubt about who the Class 4A team champion would be.

The Mavericks led by 30 points before the championship matches and five of their six finalists took home individual titles, doing more than enough to finish atop the team standings for the first time in school history.

“It’s huge for the program,” Mead coach Ty Tatham said of the landmark state championship. “It’s an incredible feeling and a great sense of accomplishment. It’s something that we’ve talked about with this group. Did we expect to have five champions and six finalists? No. But you keep coaching and pushing each kid and this whole experience has been pretty humbling.”

Otto Black started the title wave and remained undefeated with a tie-breaking victory over Roosevelt’s Chris LaLonde at 138 pounds, securing his win with an audible eruption from Mead fans as the other matches in the weight class had long since ended.

The sudden victories continued with Jake Glade at 150 pounds, whose takedown of Thompson Valley’s Kellen Englehardt made Mead the center of attention at Ball Arena.

Leister Bowling pushed his record to 59-1 with an 8-0 decision to win the 175-pound bracket. Bowling controlled proceedings from start to finish and never allowed his opponent even a minor edge in the bout. It was his second major decision — paired with two pins — to cap an impressive performance at state.

“I’ve never been part of a team like this,” Bowling said. “We came up, we showed up. We took it match by match — we weren’t looking at team points at all — and we just dominated. Six for six in the semis, five for six in the finals, you couldn’t ask for a better feeling. It was awesome.”

Dalton Berg followed that up at 190 pounds with a 4-0 decision over Roosevelt’s Bronco Hartson, handing the Colorado Mesa University football commit only his second loss of the season.

With the title long since secured, heavyweight Grant Gordon still picked up a second-period pin over Skyline’s Rene Perez to kick off the celebrations for Mead as grapplers embraced friends and family in the stands.

“All my guys, my family, right there in the stands,” Gordon said after his victory. “Half the town of Mead right there. It’s amazing.”

William Eilers took second at 215 pounds and Carter Woods placed fourth at 144 pounds.

Elsewhere in 4A, Thompson Valley’s Jackzen Rairdon saw his quest for four state championships come up short as he lost an 8-4 decision to Sand Creek’s Landon Drury. It was a physical match throughout that at one point saw Rairdon toss into the boards at Ball Arena as he was thrown clear of the 4A mat.

Thompson Valley finished fifth in the team standings, rounding out a group that included Pueblo East in second, Windsor in third and Falcon in fourth.