Brighton area boasts of two repeat wrestling champs, two runners-up

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

DENVER -- Prairie View’s Ane’e Vigil and Brighton’s Dylan BravoPacker brought home championships from the state 5A wrestling tournament over the weekend.

eir state-winning matches were as di erent as left and right.

Vigil, who won his third straight crown, battled through to a 4-2 win over Ponderosa’s Jaylen Burge in the 113-pound nal.

BravoPacker, on the other hand, needed 1:41 of his match against Adrian Arellano of Pomona to record the pinfall win and his second straight championship.

“My coach, Eric Heinz, said anything would work for me,” in this tournament. “Being one of the only heavyweights to shoot was a huge thing.”

Three-peat

Vigil tried everything in his arsenal to turn Burge during the match but without success.

“ e kid? He is super strong,” Vigil said. “I had to improvise, ride him tough to win that match. He had such a strong base. I defended him really well.”

After his win, Vigil had enough energy to climb into the seats and celebrate with his family.

“It’s a great feeling having such a great support system,” he said. “It’s the best feeling in the world. All the work? It felt like it paid o .”

Two-peat

BravoPacker said his mindset was pretty simple.

“One match at a time, one move at a time,” he said. “I want to seize every opportunity I can get.” is was BravoPacker’s fourth appearance in the state nals and his second title.

“My freshman year, I wasn’t as technical as the other guy, and I lost,” he said. “My sophomore year,

I went in with a big head, thinking I had it in the bag right away. Denitely didn’t, and I lost. In my junior year, there was no losing. I went out and did it.”

In closings

“It’s a hard sport,” Vigil said. “I’m so emotional. It’s my senior year. It’s my last match. I’m pretty tapped.” Vigil is awaiting o ers from col- leges.

“I have no clue yet, but this help. Yes sir, it will,” he said. “I wanted to dominate. I wanted to tech fall (win by more than 15 points). But I still got the ‘W.’”

BravoPacker, who advanced to the nals all four years at BHS, lost a couple of members of his support system the past three years, including his great-grandfather this year.

“It was a little hard. I was closer with them than most kids,” he said.

“I visited with them most every Sunday. It was a big toll on me. e shirt I was wearing in the nals was from my grandpa when he passed away when I was a freshman. ey were mentors, teachers. My great-grandpa taught me how to turn on a stove and cook. He taught me to y sh. My other great-grandpa taught me how to ride a horse.

“ ose things they did leave behind are great things I know I will use for a very long time.”

Two more runners-up Riverdale Ridge’s AJ Hague had the taste of the state title. But coming up short is motivation for the junior to return with a vengeance.

Hague fell 3-1 to ompson Valley’s Jackzen Rairdon in the class 4A 120-pound title match, but he knew it was his to win.

“I came up short with one mistake, unfortunately,” Hague said. “Focus on next season.”

Hague nished the season with a 46-5 record and pinned his rst two opponents at the state tournament before beating Mesa Ridge’s Damien Reyes 4-1 to advance to the title match.

“I worked hard all week,” the junior said. “I wanted to win that championship. It is a lot of motivation for next season.”

Schoolmate Natasha Kuberski finished second in the 235-pound bout after falling to Calhan’s Ciara Monger in the title match by a pinfall.

Kuberski was disappointed for falling short but really appreciated the moment to wrestle.

“It was fun,” Kuberski said. “I got to do something I just really loved in front of a lot of people. I was disappointed I didn’t win, but I got to wrestle Ciara, and we are friends. And I am happy for her -- glad I got to share the match with a friend of mine.”

Eagle Ridge’s Derby takes ‘thievery’ to top of the rankings

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

It’s theft.

Plain and simple.

It’s arrest-worthy on the streets. But it’s legal during the game of basketball.

Eagle Ridge Academy’s Megan Derby knows that all too well. She leads the state and is fourth in the nation in steals. Derby, a senior, averages more than 11 thefts per game. at’s to go with averages of six points, seven rebounds and ve assists per contest through 19 games.

“Whatever goes, goes,” she said. “It’s the movement and placement of my body. I try to move fast. I try to react. I never worked on it. I always work on my defense. It’s just come to me. I’ve worked on it with my parents. But it’s mostly been me.”

Her sport of choice is soccer. She’s planning to join her sister at Northeastern Community College in Nebraska next year. Derby said there are some similarities between basketball and soccer, especially on defense.

“ e defensive side is the same. You have to use your hands in basketball,” Derby said. “In soccer, you don’t use your hands. It’s the positioning of your body, trying to backpedal. It all melds together. Without soccer, I wouldn’t be too good at basketball with how fast you have to be and the reaction timing. It’s di erent.

“In soccer, I play the same way I do in basketball,” Derby continued. “Soccer is a little more aggressive. But it’s the reaction time and knowing the game and anticipating everything.”

If there is some sort of “seventh sense” that helps Derby play defense, her teammates are more aware of it than she is.

“You have a Megan Derby outside of sports. It’s completely di erent,” she said. “But once that whistle blows, I don’t exist. It’s just ‘Derby.’ Once that buzzer goes o or that whistle sounds, I’m just smiling and happy. I don’t have the death stare that everyone says I have.

“It’s pretty scary. I get told that a lot, even from other parents,” Derby continued. “I’m like, ‘Oh. Sorry.’”

“I know what I have to do,” she continued. “Sometimes, it looks like I put my head down. But that’s just me knowing I messed up and that I have to keep going. at aggressive side kicks in. I use my mistakes to get stronger. If I don’t do that, I wouldn’t be where I am with my defense, my steals, my o ense or my teammates.”