Widefield wrestling is making history on the road to next week’s state competition.

The Gladiator boys took the 4A Region 4 title Saturday in Falcon for their first regional title since 2002 with a score of 236, followed by Palisade in second with 201, and Falcon took third with 186 points. 

Four individuals in each weight class from each of the four regionals in each classification will advance to the Colorado High School Activities Association state championship at Ball Arena in Denver on Thursday through Saturday.  

“It’s nice to put Widefield wrestling back to the competitive side of the state,” Widefield boys coach James Fernandez said. “I wrestled for Mesa Ridge, and Widefield used to mop the mat and the entire city, including us. It just shows that we worked hard this season.” 

Widefield had three of its four wrestlers win in the finals, including freshman Manuel Mota (106), who will be making his first trip to state after defeating Canon City’s Asher Montoya by reversal in the final 10 seconds. It is the fourth time Mota has taken down Montoya this season. 

Mota also won the 106-pound title at the 2026 Colorado Springs Metro Championships in January. 

“(Mota) had a tougher matchup today and was under the weather this week, so it’s nice to see him battle through that and dig deep when he needs to,” Fernandez said. “It’s great to coach these kids up and help make their dreams come true.”

Widefield sophomore Connor Nichols beat Falcon’s Liam Dolan by decision, sophomore Ricky Aulava defeated Durango’s Jacob Belt by major decision, but senior Matthew Sandoval fell to Canon City’s Elias Koonce with a pin in 50 seconds. 

Gladiator Chase Sullivan fell to Palisade’s Hunter Ship by major decision in the 215-pound finals. 

“All season, we weren’t given much of a chance to do much,” assistant coach Avelino Mota said. “Rankings didn’t have us ranked very well, but that meant nothing to us. We know we are, and what we do, and just came out and showed what they are capable of.” 

The regional win comes a week after both Widefield teams won the CSML South title. The girls’ team placed second (189.5) in 5A Region 2 to Eaglecrest (219.5) on Saturday. 

A large part of both programs’ success is the family atmosphere, or the “Widefield Wrestling Family” as it calls itself. After a historic day in Falcon, Widefield wrestling could not be more excited to cheer each other on next week at state. 

“We all practice together, we all work hard together,” Fernandez said. “We mix up boys and girls and shuffle the whole room around to make sure we are developing everyone. We are just a big family, and it’s nice to be back on top.” 

Around the state 

The Pine Creek boys and girls, both of whom won the team titles at the 2026 Colorado Springs Metro Championship, placed first and second at their respective regionals. The Pine Creek girls finished second to Central-GJ at the 5A Region 1 tournament in Poudre, while the Ponderosa boys edged out Pine Creek (224.5) for first with 236 points at the 5A Region 3 regional at Legacy. 

2026 Colorado Springs Metro Championship girls’ champion Gia Gabel fell to Loveland’s Saydee Lussenhop 1-1 in the 110-pound final by decision.

The Pine Creek boys had a three-point lead over Ponderosa before the finals. Still, Pine Creek’s Carson Diana fell to Ponderosa’s Jaylen Burge in the 138-pound final, and Brett Arnoldussen fell to Douglas County’s Miller Yaskoweak in the 190-pound final. At the same time, Ponderosa won four of its final matches.

Pine Creek’s Gavin Weichelt won the 157-pound final over Mountain Vista’s Max Tafoya, and Brogan Trollope took the 175-pound match by forfeit.

Air Academy boys (223) placed second behind Pueblo East (295) in the 4A
Region 1 tournament at Thompson Valley after falling to Pueblo East in four final matches.

However, Dylan Saba won the 120-pound bout for Air Academy 19-4 over Pueblo Central’s Sonny Solano.