DENVER — Boulder senior Joey Airola thought he’d punched his ticket to his first state final since his freshman year. Monarch’s Emilio Trujillo-Deen believed he’d escaped for a point in the last second of regulation to send Friday’s semifinals match into an extra period.
The wrestling boons went the way of the Coyotes junior after a brief huddle by the officials, and then not long after, they did again for him in overtime. Trujillo-Deen recorded a takedown in the extra period for the 6-4 sudden victory decision to nab his place in Saturday’s Class 5A 132-pound final at Ball Arena.
At match’s end, a rejoiceful Trujillo-Deen, who’d lost to Airola in their previous two meetings this season, pointed to his adoring fans and went hopping away to celebrate a bit more. He was one of three wrestlers from Monarch to reach Saturday’s finals.
Airola, meanwhile, stunned, faded into the arena’s lower tunnels. Up against a wall with his head down, he tried to put into words what had just transpired.
“It was a tough match,” Airola said. “I thought I had it. But I guess he got out at the end. My mind just wasn’t right for that overtime.”
Two of the Front Range League’s best wrestlers had traded points throughout an entertaining, back-and-forth match. Trujillo-Deen had an early two-point takedown in the first period only to be matched by a pair of one-point escapes by Airola to tie things going into the third.
There, Trujillo-Deen took the lead with an escape before Airola jumped ahead with a late takedown to go up 4-3. Then with the match reset to the middle with 3 seconds remaining, Trujillo-Deen gave a thumbs up to his coaches before he pried his way out from under Airola to score a last-second escape to send things into OT.
That’s where some controversy took place. With the clock at zeros, Airola put his hand out to shake Trujillo-Deen’s, thinking the match was over. Officials didn’t immediately make a ruling and instead conferenced for a couple minutes before awarding the point.
“You can’t challenge in high school, so it’s whatever the refs say,” Airola said. “The other ref said I lost control with a second left.”
The Monarch junior recorded an early takedown in the first extra period for the win.
“I told my coach, ‘It’s OK coach, I got this,’” Trujillo-Deen said when asked about his confident thumbs-up with his state title hopes dwindling away. “And then in my head, I was like, I said that, so now I better do it.”
Trujillo-Deen will face Pomona’s Elijah Olguin Saturday night for gold.
As what he can take away from such a dramatic win from Friday is to “wrestle my style,” he said.
Trujillo-Deen will be joined in the finals by teammates Dillon Roman (138s) and Cole Carlucci (182s) as the Coyotes eye a top-three finish.
Airola, who injured his knee in the quarterfinals and wore a brace in the semis, will go into consolations and will podium for a fourth straight season. He’ll wrestle at Nebraska-Kearney next year.
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