Niwot wrestling wraps up season at regional championships

If Niwot wrestling's performance at the 2022 Class 4A Region 3 championships had a title, it would be "A Series of Unfortunate Events." It all started with an injury to a top wrestler in the days before the regional, and ended with a stunning reversal in the third period of a wrestleback match. Like the fictionalized series of the same name, there were plenty of plot twists along the way, but unlike the books, this tale did not have an ambiguous conclusion. For the second straight year, no Niwot wrestlers qualified to compete at the Class 4A championships, bringing a once promising 2022 season to an unexpected end.

"It's not just disappointment, I would say it's more heartache," Coach Bobby Matthews said of his team's fate at the regional, held Feb. 11-12 at Mead High. "The sport is so hard, and the kids put in three months of work and more into what comes down to one weekend. But I'm proud of the way the kids came out and wrestled. I thought they wrestled much better."

Alas, that didn't result in many wins for Niwot, as seven of its 10 wrestlers were eliminated after the first two rounds (or eight of 11, if you count Niwot's 132-pounder, who didn't survive weigh-ins). Among them was Bryce Nemec, a senior vying for his first trip to state, after a near-miss at regionals in 2021. Niwot wrestling wraps up season at regional championships

Competing in the 220-pound class, he amassed a 26-5 regular season record, and was ranked 7th overall in Class 4A, making a top-four finish in 2022 well within his reach. But in an ominous sign of things to come for Niwot, Nemec injured his thumb days before the tournament, and ultimately took a medical forfeit, ending his high school career prematurely.

"My heart hurts for Bryce," Matthews said of the second-year varsity senior. "He's such an amazing kid, and to end his career like that, after sitting out a year due to transfer rules and then the pandemic, and doing it with a smile on his face and hard work. It gave me a lot of sleepless nights last week."

That left the Cougars' state hopes resting on three underclassmen: freshman Ryder Evans (113), sophomore Gavin Burrage (182), and sophomore Ben Rauschkolb (195). Evan and Burrage survived with just one loss on the first day of competition, and were facing third round consolation matches, while Rauschkolb had won his only match, putting him in the championship semifinals.

Among the spectators on day two was Nemec, there to cheer on the remaining Cougars, even as it became a 10-hour day.

"The fact that Bryce was here all day, and was here early, shows who he is as a human being," Matthews said of Nemec. "His legacy in the program goes above if his name is on the [Niwot wrestling Hall of Fame] wall. He's somebody I'm going to be talking about for many, many years."

It did not end up being a 10-hour day for Evans and Burrage, as both lost their opening matches and were eliminated from the competition. Afterwards, Matthews said freshman Evans had "a really solid year," against a weight class that saw a lot of upperclassmen compete.

It was Rauschkolb who was in for the long haul. He suffered his first loss of the tournament in the semifinal, to Zeb Merriam of Windsor, who would go on to take first in the bracket. That put Rauschkolb in the consolation semifinals, where a win would keep Niwot's state prospects alive, and a loss would send him and his teammates on their way until next season.

To Matthews' delight, a reinvigorated Rauschkolb pulled off a pin of Mountain View's Jacob Pennington in the first period, and it seemed like Niwot might have a qualifier after all. In his next match, he would wrestle for third or fourth place overall in the bracket, which is all he needed to get to state.

Well, not quite all. Rauschkolb dropped the next match, putting him in fourth place. But because a trip to state was on the line, the fourth-place finisher was subject to a wrestleback, a complicated rule that ultimately meant Rauschkolb had to defend his state berth against fifth-place finisher Braden Tanner of Silver Creek.

In the final cruel plot twist of the weekend, Rauschkolb was leading Tanner 6-1 with less than a minute to go in the third period, and seemed firmly in control of his opponent. Until he wasn't, and Tanner was able to pull off a reversal, putting the sophomore on his back. And just like that, Niwot wrestling would have to try again in 2023.

"I think what Ben needed today was more experience, and to learn how to rebound from losses," Matthews said of the sophomore. "In that last match, when he's up five points in a wrestleback with 50 seconds to go, you have to understand how to handle that situation, and basically that there's only one way to lose. The more situations you're in, the more you can adapt and change your style to meet what you need."

Of course, even a few rough rounds at the regional tournament count as experience, and all but one of his wrestlers will be back next season with more of it. Off-season training begins in a few weeks, and, despite the outcome of 2022, Matthews is optimistic for the future.

"In my seven years here, this is the most dedicated group I've had. They want to go offseason training, and they want to buy-in to the program. I haven't had a group of kids like that at Niwot, so I am excited to see what next season brings.