Just three days remain in the prep wrestling season and the final 72 hours will occur in Denver at Ball Arena.

The 2026 boys and girls state wrestling tournament begins Thursday with first-round and quarterfinal matches. A bevy of Pikes Peak region competitors will battle for spots in Saturday’s finals.

Nearly 200 area boys and girls wrestlers will compete for their weight class’ crown and to earn a podium spot.

While several storylines will develop in the coming days, here are some of note.

Sand Creek’s Tristan Pino looks to repeat; Scorpions 100-pounder Peggy Susan Dean prepares for tough task

Pino has quite the streak going ahead of the state tournament. Pino, last year’s 4A 106-pound champion, has not lost since the COS Metro Wrestling Championships on Jan. 18 and has won 10 consecutive matchups.

At regionals, Pino relinquished just one point in three matches en route to the crown and will contend for the 120 championship this year.

On the girls’ side, Dean enters the tournament at 38-0 and is the No. 2 seed in the 5A 100 bracket. Atop that bracket, however, is Pomona’s Justice Gutierrez, who is 112-1 and has not lost a match since her freshman year.

If both wrestlers qualify for Saturday’s finals, it will be a battle of the unbeatens.

Pine Creek girls send 11, Widefield qualifies 10 as both will contend for 5A girls’ title

The Eagles girls nearly qualified every position for the state tournament. Of the 14 weight classes, the Eagles have 11 competing this week.

Six of the 11 who qualified for state placed second at regionals and the Eagles have a strong chance to compete for the 5A girls team title.

The Eagles placed fourth last season. Pomona and Ponderosa are still aiming for the 5A crown. Pomona, the defending champs, qualified seven competitors while Ponderosa, the 2025 runners-up, have eight wrestlers at state.

For Widefield, Rilen-Rose Casares was the Gladiators’ lone regional champ while Ellianna Kidwell and Amaya Hinojosa both placed second. The Eagles and Gladiators battled for the COS Metro Wrestling Championship girls title last month with Pine Creek securing the plaque.

Air Academy, Widefield boys aiming for 4A’s top spot

The Kadets qualified 10 positions for the state tournament while Widefield will send nine wrestlers to compete.

Widefield won its first regional championship since 2002 and captured the 4A region 4 championship last weekend to build steam ahead of the tournament. The Kadets finished second at the region 4 tourney, which featured defending state champion Pueblo East.

The Eagles won the regional tournament and have 12 wrestlers qualified for state as the field attempts to stop Pueblo East from capturing back-to-back championships and its fourth since 2022.

CSCS’ Forrest Craddock will compete for 2A 138-pound title

Craddock earned the No. 1 seed in 2A with a dominant performance this season and at regionals. Craddock outscored his opponents 39-4 at the 2A region 3 regional and has won 10 of his last 11 matches.

The Lions wrestler placed fourth last season at state at 144 and lost in the quarterfinals but will return this year in the 138 bracket as he’ll fight to win a title in his senior campaign.

Cañon City’s Kate Doughty hopeful for repeat

Doughty finished last season 34-0 and won a title along with her brother, Jack. This year, Doughty hopes to finish with another unblemished record.

The Cañon City 135-pounder enters this year’s 4A girls tournament ranked No. 1 and is 20-0. Doughty has not lost since her sophomore year in the 130 title match to Pomona’s Persaeus Gomez, who became a four-time state champ with the victory and finished her career 108-0.