This was home for my two days at the Pepsi Center:
So after shooting the quarterfinals in the morning, I had to shoot the beginning of the consolation round in the afternoon and the semifinals in the evening. While I was waiting for one of the matches I needed to shoot, instead of going back to back to my spot on press row, I decided to practice a little on another match and was able to get this image:
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| Shane Whitmore of Burlington, left, tries to push away Adam Ortivez of LaVeta during their 130-pound quarterfinal match at the 2A Colorado State High School Wrestling Tournament on Friday at the Pepsi Center in Denver. |
On Friday evening the two Middle Park wrestlers in the consolation round won, West Grand's Chase Hill lost his championship semifinal putting him into the consolation bracket, and Middle Park's Brian Macchione won his semifinal to advance to Saturday night's championship.
On Saturday morning the two Middle Park wrestlers in the consolation round lost, so their tournament was over. Chase Hill, the lone West Grand wrestler still alive, lost his consolation semifinal match, but would wrestle for fifth place--assuring himself a spot on the podium.
I then snuck over to the Colorado Press Association awards (see the results of that below) and while I was gone, Hill lost the fifth place match to take sixth.
With only one wrestler in the finals to worry about, I shot a few of the other championship matches to stay sharp while sitting on the hard floor of the Pepsi Center and this was probably my favorite image:
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| Kurtis Romero of LaJunta and Darin Sisnerso of Alamosa get tangled up in the 3A 112-pound championship match at the Colorado State High School Wrestling Tournament on Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver. |
Middle Park junior Brian Macchione made it to the 189-pound final in 3A, which he would go on to win. Here are three of my favorites:
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| Middle Park's Brian Macchione, top, controls Mario Garcia of Dolores Huerta during the 3A 189-pound championship match at the Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver. |
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| Middle Park coaches Cal Cherrington, left, and Cody Arnold celebrate as Brian Macchione wins the class 3A 189-pound championship at the Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver. |
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| Middle Park's Brian Macchione celebrates after winning the class 3A 189-pound title at the Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver. |
I guess I should add that I won my own state championship, of sorts, while in Denver. The Colorado Press Association held its annual convention and announced the winners in its annual contest on Saturday. I was fortunate enough to win two firsts (news and sports) and a second (feature) in the photography portion of the contest. The reporters I work with also brought home several awards and our paper won the Editorial Excellence Award, which was a nice way to follow up on the Photo and Design Excellence Award we won last year.
Here are my winning photos:
First place news
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| Members of Grand County Emergency Medical Services, the East Grand Fire Department and Grand Park Community Recreation Center staff treat simulated patients during training exercises in the foam pit at the recreation center in Fraser. |
First place sports
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| West Grand's Brook Cecil hits past the Paonia block during a game in Kremmling. The Lady Mustangs went on to win the match in four sets, 25-19, (22-25), 26-24, 25-22. |
Second place feature
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| Rudy Garcia, right, assists with the bean bag toss during kid's games put on by the KremmlingVolunteer Fire Department as part of Kremmling Days festivities. |
goo, goo g'joob
1 comment:
That is cool that you won that I cant think of a more exciting weekend. I cant think of a better guy to win all those thing then you. that is awesome. thanks for coming and sitting all night.
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