Photo by Will Cornelius
After missing the start of the season, senior Spartan Kaleb Cooper returned to the mat on Dec. 15 to capture sixth place in the 175-lbs division at the Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament.

By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

Over 80 high school varsity boys wrestling teams competed in the Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament (NCCT) last weekend, including Berthoud High School.
“In one of the hardest tournaments of the year, we got six kids into the second day, possibly having an opportunity to medal,” Head Boys Wrestling Coach Josh Galindo said about his team’s performance midday on Saturday, Dec. 16. The annual tournament is one of the toughest tests of the season for the 3A Spartans, pitting themselves against 4A and 5A schools from across the region.

Seniors Kaleb Cooper and Donovan Mann led Berthoud at the NCCT, both capturing sixth place in their weight classification.

In his season debut, Cooper, wrestling in the 175-lbs weight division, won his first three bouts by pinfall on Friday to secure a spot in the quarterfinals the following day. Facing Brayden Fernandez of nearby Windsor High School, Cooper went all three rounds before losing in a 12-11 decision. “He beat himself,” Galindo lamented, referring to an early one-point penalty Cooper received in the opening round. “That one point would have put us in overtime.” Cooper went 2-2 over the rest of his consolation matches to capture sixth place.

Wrestling in the 285-lbs heavyweight division, Mann also cruised to the quarterfinals after three pinfalls on the first day of the NCCT where he faced Ralston Valley High School’s Austin Blattner. Mann began the match with a takedown to gain the upper hand, but Blattner exploited an untimely slip from Mann and reversed him to get a pinfall win in the first round. “Donnie, he slipped. It was one mistake,” Galindo explained. “You know, 270 pounds is not easy to get up off of.” Like Cooper, Mann also split his final four matches to place sixth in the division.

The Spartans finished the tournament in 27th place out of 84 teams and were the fifth-best 3A program after Eaton, Severance, Centauri and Pueblo Central High School. Cooper and Mann led the team in points, followed by Trevor Moore, Michael Murray, Ben Schroeder, King Flaherty, Max Gossett, Cody Croft and Dax Diffendaffer.
Overall, Galindo said he was happy with how his side competed at the tournament. “Michael (Murray) lost to a good kid but hung in there and made that kid panic. So his loss was not a bad loss, it’s a learning experience.” Testing themselves against the best in the state early in the season is part of the team’s strategy. “Trevor (Moore), same thing, we ran into another hammer, 5A schools are here, this happens. But our kids competed, they pushed back, they didn’t back down, they fought.”

Gossett was also slated to compete in the quarterfinals of the 113-lbs division but woke up with an illness Saturday morning and had to forfeit. “This is the scary thing for Berthoud wrestling right now. We’re still missing three key wrestlers, Uriah Chacon, Kaeden Kettle and Kole Schnell,” Galindo mentioned about the team not being at full strength yet.

It has been a punishing start to the season, with three major tournaments over the past three weekends, including a trip to Colby, Kan. a fortnight ago. But it is all a part of the plan according to Galindo. “We went to Kansas for a reason, we entered in that Greeley dual for a reason. We wanted to face nothing but 5A schools, 4A schools, so they could build that confidence and they got it.”

Berthoud will not wrestle again until Jan. 5 and 6, when they travel to Niwot High School on back-to-back days for a Friday night dual and then a Saturday tournament.
Healing, coalescing and improving is the mantra over the Christmas break Galindo said. “We’re going to spend these two weeks conditioning, getting ourselves healed, cleaning up the little mistakes, because as soon as the new year comes up—it’s on.”