The Gunnison High School girls wrestling team competed in Colorado Springs at the Vista Ridge Alpha Female Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 10, placing all four girls in the finals.
“It’s a fairly tough tournament, but it was a good experience,” said head coach Mike Dawson. “Facing those 5A schools in a bigger tournament, we wanted to give the freshmen good outs and good opportunities.”
The tournament was certainly big, it had to be split into a gold ranked division and a silver division. Dawson said that over 40 percent of the girls competing at the tournament were ranked in the state as well.
Roxie and Romie Uhrig each competed in the gold division, both losing in the finals to previous state champions from 4A and 5A schools.
Roxie, wrestling at 145 pounds, went 2-1 and placed second, scoring 20 points for the Cowboys. She pinned her first opponent in the quarterfinal after 1:09 and then pinned her second opponent in the semifinals in just 19 seconds to reach the first place match. She lost via a 7-1 decision and took second place. It was just Roxie’s second loss of the season as her overall record moved to 19-3.
Romie, wrestling at 155 pounds, went 3-2 and placed second as well, scoring 23.5 points for the Cowboys. She won her first match by a technical fall score of 15-0 after 2:31, pinned her opponent after 34 seconds in her second match and pinned her opponent after 2:19 in her third match to advance to the championship. Like her sister, Romie lost in the championship match after being pinned in 1:56 and placed second. This was Romie’s third loss of the season as her record on the year moved to 20-3.
Freshman Tea Waggoner and McKayla Singer each placed first in their brackets in the silver division.
Waggoner wrestled at 130 pounds for the Cowboys and moved her record to 17-4 overall after going 3-0. She received a bye in the first round and then proceeded to pin her next three opponents on her way to her first place finish. She pinned her first opponent after 40 seconds in the quarterfinals, her second opponent after 1:08 in the semifinals and her third opponent after 1:40 in the championship match.
Singer wrestled at 135 pounds for the Cowboys and moved her record to 5-1 overall after going 3-0. Singer pinned her opponent in the quarterfinals after 1:08 and pinned her opponent in the semifinals after 1:54. She won by a technical fall score of 17-2 after 4:21 to take first place in just her second high school tournament.
“I was really happy with McKayla taking first, this was just her second tournament back and she was wrestling really tough,” Dawson said.
After the tournament Dawson said that he learned the girls can go toe to toe with anybody.
“They wrestled the best in the state at their weights and we had some good quality wins and good matches with some of the top talent in the state,” Dawson said.
As the girls inch closer to regionals and states in February, Dawson says that they will be working on match strategy. More specifically they will be working on knowing what to do when they’re behind and how to get ahead, as well as how to hold a lead when you are ahead and finish matches, Dawson said.
This weekend the girls will be traveling to Thorton to compete in the 2026 Girls Skyview Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 17.
Jack Sellner can be reached at jsellner@orourkemediagroup.com.
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