Multiple area wrestling teams finished day one of their regional tournament in the top three of the standings after Friday’s matches.

The regional tournament, which takes place at various locations in Colorado, concludes Saturday with the top four wrestlers from each weight class clinching a spot at the state tournament Feb. 15-17 in Denver at Ball Arena.

Pine Creek boys lead Class 5A Region 4’s standings with 118.5 points after the opening day of the tournament.

Falcon, which landed in the loaded Class 4A Region 3 bracket featuring Mead, Pueblo East and Palmer Ridge, Discovery Canyon and more, ended Friday’s session in second with 105.5 points.

The Falcons trail Mead, which is in first with 114 points, by 8.5 and could snag the region from the Mavericks with a solid performance during Saturday’s matches.

Three area teams sit in third following their opening matches as Mesa Ridge, Cañon City and 3A region 2 host The Classical Academy, are all two spots away from first.

The Grizzlies finished Friday’s matches with 70.5 points while the Tigers ended with 80 at 4A’s region 4 tournament.

The Classical Academy, which hosted 3A’s Region 2 tournament, is third with 80.5 points and needs just 6.5 to tie Pueblo Central for second place and 10.5 to catch first place Brush’s 91.

For the girls, Discovery Canyon has 76 points for second place and trails first place Loveland by six points in the buzz saw that is Region 4.

Vista Ridge earned 54 points in the Region 3 and placed third after day one competition.

Air Academy’s Jackson Downs wrestles and wins his 285-pound class match against Vista Ridge’s Jacob Sullivan on Friday at Lewis-Palmer High School.

LAURA DOMINGUE, Special to The Gazette

Falcon’s Javani Majoor wrestles and wins his 165-pound class match Friday against Pueblo East’s Thomas Van Hee at the Class 4A Gerrard Flores Region 3 championship at Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument.

Photos by LAURA DOMINGUE, Special to the Gazette