“That’s Palmer,” the wrestler said to his buddy, nodding his head in awe.
Those days are behind Palmer now ” let’s just say people know him.
Palmer has taken the 4A heavyweight division by storm this season, taking a 33-1 record all the way up the ranks to sit alone atop the rankings. Tonight, he hopes to cap it off with a state title.
“I told myself at the beginning, I’m doing this for my brother,” said Palmer, who pinned Ranum’s previously undefeated Dominick Hastings in the semifinals Friday. “He was a wrestler, and I told myself I’m going to win a state title for him.”
Casey Palmer was riding in the passenger seat of his girlfriend’s car about three years ago in Abilene, Kan., when a drunk driver flew through a stop sign and broadsided the vehicle. Casey hit his head, and after six hours of surgery, he died at the hospital.
“He’s my motivation before every match,” Cody Palmer said. “I’m wrestling for my brother.”
The fact that Palmer is wrestling at all is big news.
After tearing through junior high as a wrestler ” pinning every opponent his eighth-grade year ” Palmer opted not to wrestle his freshman or sophomore years.
“He’d be a multiple state champion if he wrestled all four years for me,” Tigers coach Duff Seaney said. “Lord knows I asked him every chance I got.”
Palmer spent last year in Kansas with his father, and after Abilene’s heavyweight wrestler went down to injury, the coaches talked Palmer into coming out.
“I wrestled for about three weeks and qualified for state,” said Palmer, who also won a power-lifting com-petition while in Kansas. “I should have won, but I took third.”
Palmer might prefer football to wrestling ” “Football’s my life,” he says ” but the Cañon senior has himself in prime position to be king of wrestling. That has him all smiles.
No football game will showcase Palmer like tonight’s finals will, though. A sold-out Pepsi Center with nearly 20,000 roaring fans, coupled with countless flashbulbs around the arena, most find themselves intimidated when the time finally rolls around.
Not Palmer.
“It will probably just give me more of an edge,” Palmer said. “Of course, I’m ready.”
Palmer faces Northridge’s Tim Saucedo, who Palmer has already pinned this season, in tonight’s finals.
STILL CHASING: Hopeful seniors Matt Garoutte and Eric Brown both lost their quarterfinal matches Friday and both came back with a win in the second round of consolations.
Fueled with aggression from his previous loss, Garoutte pinned Pine Creek’s John Bissell in 3:16 in the 130-pound quarterfinals.
“That was a revenge match for me,” Garoutte said. “He beat me earlier in the year. I was beating him, and he pinned me. He almost did it again.”
Now, Garoutte’s focused on shooting for third place.
“The loss was disappointing, but it’s behind me now,” Garoutte said. “I’m approaching it like every match is my last, because it could be.”
Brown had a tremendous scare to advance to today’s 152-pound third round, which begins at 12:30 p.m.
Down 8-5 to Mesa Ridge’s Jarrod Purvis with less than a minute left, Brown got a reversal and two back points to take the lead for good.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Brown said. “I’ve beaten him before. I was definitely scared, but I said, ‘Go, go, go. Don’t quit.’ I’m just happy to get the win.”
Seaney said Garoutte and Brown have a good shot at placing.
“They’re both just one win away,” Seaney said. “That would be great for both of them, and I like both of their chances.”
MICHAUD BIDS FAREWELL: Tigers senior Tim Michaud ended a career that began when he was 10 years old wrestling for Seaney. Michaud lost his second-round consolations match to Harrison’s Tony Cabello on Friday.
“Tim’s a great kid,” Seaney said. “He’s another kid I’ve taught for so long. It’s sad to see him go.”
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