DENVER

Stocker Robbins got a big round of hugs when he advanced to the state championship match.

He got a bigger one when he lost it.

Jonathan Andreatta of John Mall pinned the Ignacio High School freshman with 19 seconds remaining in the second period Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Andreatta improved to 38-1 for the year with his victory.

Robbins trailed 2-0 after the first period and wasn’t able to find any measure of control.

“I just came out flat and didn’t wrestle to my potential,” said Robbins, son of Josh Robbins. “I think (losing) actually helped me. It makes me more hungry. I’m going to come back next year with a vengeance.”

Robbins became just the third IHS freshman ever to wrestle in a state championship match.

“He deserved to be in that state championship wrestling match,” IHS head coach Cody Haga said. “All it’s gonna do is boost him up for the next three years.”

The Bobcats had two other wrestlers still alive at the start of Saturday’s matches.

Blaine Mickey finished in sixth place at 170 pounds in Class 2A after he lost 7-5 to Sedgwick County’s Brandon Anderson. He trailed 7-5 in the last 15 seconds and couldn’t find the take down he needed to tie.

Mickey put himself into the fifth-place match with a 13-9 win in the consolation third round over Yuma’s Justin Yeth and a pin loss in the consolation semifinals to Kolby Starks of Norwood.

“It’s anyone’s game up here. You never know who you’re going to meet up with,” Haga said. “You just gotta want it a little bit more.”

Ethan Appenzeller fell out of the consolation bracket by the slimmest of margins. He lost to Michael Estrada of Rocky Ford 9-7 in triple overtime in the consolation third round.

Appenzeller led 7-4 after two periods, but Estrada tied it at seven before the end of the third. Both wrestlers fought deadlocked through the first two overtimes before Estrada pulled a takedown for the victory.

“Ethan just had a bad luck of the draw,” Haga said. “He came out, wrestled tough, gave up some points, and that happens.”

Robbins’ loss concluded Haga’s first season as the Bobcats’ head coach. The IHS alumnus and former state wrestler himself brought eight wrestlers to the state tournament in his first season in charge.

“My team is young, so I just hope they let this experience be an advantage for training over the summer and come back hard for the 2015 wrestling year,” Haga said.

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