by Peter Baumgartner
On Saturday, January 14, sixteen teams competed in the Invitational, showing off their strength and skill to determine who was the best in each of 14 weight classes. Broomfield, considered one of the best teams in the State, sent a full team of their junior varsity wrestlers and that was good enough to win the tournament held here at the Lyons High School. Placing second was Longmont’s varsity and third was the Windsor varsity.
Lyons, which only had eight wrestlers none-the less, did well at 8th place. Marino Gonzalez wrestling at 113 did the best among the Lyons wrestlers placing 4th. Coach Sullivan said, “I was pleased. Every kid on the Lyons team won matches.” The tournament was held in the double elimination format with every wrestler in Lyons getting to wrestle at least 3 matches.
Watching the Lyons grapplers practice on Tuesday several wrestlers caught this reporter’s eye. Lyons has two middle school wrestlers with excellent technique. The Hickman twins wrestle at 82 and 145 pounds. Will Hickman is an hour older, but is the lighter of the two and Coach Sullivan called him “fearless.” John Hickman is 9 and 1 with 8 pins -- the wrestling equivalent of a knockout. He credits many of those pins to a neck wrenching headlock he has mastered.
Coming along in skill is heavyweight David Plute. Plute combines a judo hip throw with aggressiveness he learned in football and his technique is growing along with his overall fitness. Also well worth watching is team captain, Kelton Tschanz, a junior at 145, who is becoming an escape and takedown artist. Watch them all when Lyons team hosts Estes Park at home on Thursday evening at 7 p.m.
