- Arvada West wrestling coach Ron Granieri wasn’t physically there to see his team win a 5A team state wrestling championship Saturday night at the Pepsi Center.

But he was definitely there in spirit. And that spirit drove his team to an incredible season that saw the Wildcats overtake Pomona not only in 5A Jeffco this season but replace the Panthers as 5A state champions.

With a team score of 179 A-West beat second place Pomona who finished with 92 points and third place Ponderosa who finished with 88 points.

The title was the Wildcats’ third team championship in school history as they had three different wrestlers all win state championships.

Payton Tawater won at 145, Tony Silva-Bussey won at 170 and Devin Rothrock won it all at 195 pounds for A-West.

In addition, Arvada West very impressively had nine of their state qualifiers place in the tournament.

“We used our coach not able to be here with us as motivation to come out here and perform,” Silva-Bussey said.

A-West head coach Granieri and assistant Mark Schmidt were banned from coaching in the postseason and put on restriction because the team had so many transfers.

CHSAA decided not to punish the team and instead punished the coaching staff, even though they were not found to have recruited any of the players.

In reality, Granieri, who also has a ton of success at Standley Lake, has build something special in just four years at Arvada West and other wrestlers wanted to be a part of it.

But A-West’s resurgence also cost Pomona another team state title. The Panthers were better than everyone minus the Wildcats, even beating Ponderosa by four points after losing to them by 80 points at regionals.

“We are very proud of the way our guys performed this weekend,” Pomona coach Sam Federico said. “To beat Ponderosa after what happened at our regional was pretty special.”

The Panthers had a pair of state champions that included Tomas Gutierrez completing a perfect 43-0 season at 106 pounds.

In addition, Pomona’s Josh Rosales won a state title at 120 pounds.

Other notable Jeffco wrestling notes included the conclusion of one of the great Jeffco athletic careers ever.

Bear Creek senior P.T. Garcia won his third straight state championship — this one at 132 pounds. Garcia won titles as 120 in 2012 and 132 last season before completing a perfect 42-0 record this season.