Wrestler molded for greatness
Lakewood senior Gabe Dinette, ranked No. 1 in Class 5A at 160 pounds by On The Mat, is a clear front-runner to win another state title this winter and become the Tigers’ first three-time champion.
But he’s only at this point because of a change following his freshman year, when grand visions of becoming the next Colorado prep wrestler to win four titles went up in smoke at the state tournament, where Dinette didn’t even place.
“Freshman year, I was kind of just going through the motions,” Dinette admitted. “I had it in my mind that I wanted to be state champion, but I wasn’t working to prove to myself that I was there. So I didn’t fully believe it.”
Dinette’s dad and the Tigers’ volunteer coach, J.D. Dinette, described his son as “self-reflective to the point of almost being depressed” after that season.
But when he emerged from the funk, the sophomore-to-be hit the weights and the wrestling room with a newfound intensity.
The result was a state title at 145 that winter — earned in a grinding ultimate tiebreaker victory over Pomona’s Jason Romero — and then another last year at 152, that time by major decision over Rocky Mountain’s Josh Betts.
The 2016 championship match was Dinette’s coming-out party, as it highlighted the sweat equity he put in during the previous offseason in order to realize his potential — which can now be seen in his commitment to Stanford, where his dad was a fouryear starter.
“That first title match showed his burning desire to win, and also one of his signature traits — that he’s in phenomenal physical condition,” Lakewood coach Daren Stennes said. “Even at the very end of that match, he was truly going 100 percent. Because he didn’t have to worry about stamina, he could just focus on the wrestling, and he never got shaken by the pressure.”
Even offseason shoulder surgery, which sidelined Dinette this past summer, hasn’t slowed his progress.
The senior earned Allamerican status at the North Carolina Super 32 Challenge in late October, his first time nabbing such honors at a prime-time tournament, and is off to a 10-0 start so far this winter.
Fueling Dinette’s maturation into an elite wrestler is a homeschool background — “that helped me stay focused and self-motivated, and it helped with flexibility of schedule, too, because I could travel to national tournaments,” he said — as well as two athletically inclined siblings. His older brother Isaac wrestles at Campbell University, while his younger sister Ileana, a Lakewood senior, is committed to dive at DU.
Add in his dad and another Lakewood volunteer assistant coach, John Morgan — a former Olympian — to the list of influences, and the result is a technically sound wrestler who’s been molded in part by the competitiveness around him.
“I’ve trained him from the very beginning to be aggressive yet maintain perfect position — almost like the Eastern Europeans, where they never get out of position. They have one to three moves they’ve mastered, and multiple setups to those moves, and he doesn’t digress from that,” J.D. Dinette said. “He’s so good about getting to his positions, and once he gets there, no one can stop him.” Kyle Newman: 303-954-1773 knewman@ denverpost. com or @Kyle Newmandp