Hey, would you mind keeping it down, Brighton? Colorado’s newest three-time state wrestling champion has to work in the morning. No. Seriously. She does. Matilda Hruby, a Brighton High School’s 29-0 junior with red ponytails and fire to match, volunteered to referee a youth tourney in Adams City early Sunday. Now keep in mind, she agreed to take the gig no matter what happened to her late Saturday night at Ball Arena. Win or lose. Medal or no medal. “Gotta be there by 8:30 a.m.,” Hruby told me proudly from the Brighton party suite on the second level, a half-hour after knocking off Pomona senior Timberly Martinez, 9-3, in the 2026 CHSAA state wrestling tournament’s 5A girls 155-pound championship. “My boss asked me if I could be there a little bit before my match. And I told him I would. I said I didn’t want to, but he asked me, and I told him I would be there.” Whether it’s as a part-time referee or rocking Mat 6 at Ball, “Tilly” Hruby shows up ready to rock. On Saturday night, Matilda waltzed. And grinned. And dabbed. And dominated. “Dad, Dad!” Tilly shouted from the floor of the arena to her father, Ron, in the stands, several feet above, beaming down at history. “Take a picture!” It’ll last longer. But not as long as the tattoo on the Brighton junior’s right forearm. The one that matches her mother’s. On Tilly’s right forearm, it’s written, “She gave me life.” On Janelle Hruby’s left forearm, it says, “She gave me purpose.” They got the ink done in tandem about 18 months earlier. Vegas trip. Naturally. As you do. “Me and my boyfriend at the time were going to go to a little prom date (in Vegas) … and we both agreed to go get tattoos,” said Hruby, who also had mom with her in Sin City. “And I knew I wanted mine for my mom. My dad’s is in the waiting.” Brighton’s Matilda Hruby looks to the official while wrestling Discovery Canyon’s Sophia Flores during their championship Class 5A 155-pound match at the Colorado high school wrestling state tournament on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post) Best make more room on the arm. And in the trophy case. Hruby made a statement at state by ending the four-peat hopes of Martinez in the third meeting between two of the best female wrestlers in Colorado. After charging to a quick 5-0 lead and holding on — literally, in some cases — for dear life as Martinez rallied, Hruby celebrated her victory with arms held high and flashed double threes at the crowd. She’ll be shooting for a four-peat of her own next winter. It was the third meeting between Hruby and Martinez, who was shooting to become just the third Colorado girl to win four state wrestling crowns. “Make history, Timberly!” someone shouted. She came close. Martinez’s third-period takedown cut Hruby’s lead to 5-3. The Brighton junior had paced the hallway leading to the loading dock at Ball, pre-match, a bouncing mess of reds, pinks and browns. She paced her side of the mat quickly, one eye on Martinez, the other on the matches wrapping up next door. She’d stopped only to whisper in the ear of coach Eric Heinz, whose mohawk and mustache were the same shade as Tilly’s ponytails. On the other side, Martinez (34-4) was comparatively still. She nodded to coaches’ instructions or to the music piped onto the floor. “I’m the wrestler where you know how I’m going to do based on how I look when I get on that mat,” Hruby explained later. “I knew I had it. I had nerves, obviously, but because I’ve had two (matches with Martinez) before this, it made it a lot easier. And when I was hopping on that mat, my coaches helped me keep me calm.” With 12 seconds left in the first period, leading 5-0, Hruby had Martinez’s arm twisted in an awkward angle. “Take it,” Heinz shouted from the corner. “Take it all day!” Brighton’s Matilda Hruby jumps into her coaches arms after beating Discovery Canyon’s Sophia Flores during their championship Class 5A 155-pound match at the Colorado high school wrestling state tournament on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post) Martinez ran out of time. And chances. But not guts. She’s been wrestling with one good hip for years. In eighth grade, she got dropped on her hip at a tourney in Bennett. Hairline fracture. “She’s been rehabbing it ever since,” Jake Martinez, Timberly’s dad, told me. “Doctors, they wanted to wait on surgery until after she was done growing. She’s still not done growing.” Martinez was aiming to become the eighth Coloradoan since 2014 to win titles in four different weight classes, having taken the 130-pound crown in ’23; the 135-pound title in ’24; and the 140-pound championship last year. Time flies when you do what you love with family that loves you right back. It hit Jake earlier this year at the Reno Tournament of Champions. “Her and I were going to the mat, and I’m following her through the crowd,” Jake Martinez recalled. “It’s just — I used to lead the way. And now I’m following her. And so it’s bittersweet.” Bittersweet for both dads, actually. “I can tell when my daughter’s not ready,” Ron told me before the match, “and she’s ready.” She looked it. Right from the jump. And to think, they were teammates — friends, even — before they were sparring partners. The Western Suburban League. Travel teams. Girls teams. Heck, even boys teams. “They get along,” Papa Hruby said. “It’s just — sometimes, you have go compete against the people you know, and you have to put on that warrior stance and go out there and do your best.” It was their third meeting, and the one everyone sort of knew what was coming. The first two were Tilly wins, but wafer-thin margins. Hruby won 5-2 at the Eaglecrest Girls Invite in December. Tilly won again at the Tiara Challenge in January, this time by a 10-9 score. Both sets of parents had, shall we say, slightly different versions of those first two tussles. Ron Hruby: ” She’s a smart wrestler, so she’s thinking about, ‘What do I need to do to make sure I keep those points and get the edge.’ And both times, she did.” Jake Martinez: “I’ll be honest with you. Depending on the officiating, each one of those matches could have gone either way. So that’s why it’s good that there’s two officials here.” Tilly has been working out with USA Wrestling, alongside heroes such as Adeline Gray, the Bear Creek grad, two-time Olympian and six-time world champion. She just got back from a camp in China. Martinez went to Vietnam last summer, the sixth different country she’s wrestled or trained in. Hruby is headed to the prelims for the Pan Am Games in eastern Iowa next month. A couple weeks after that, it’s on to D.C. “I’ve just seen her confidence grow,” Ron Hruby said. “She doesn’t let everything else from the outside get inside her anymore. We’ve tried to just work through with her, and she just finally was able to figure out how to shut that door.” And lock it up tight. Welcome to the “hunted” club, Tilly. “I’m walking in there next year knowing I can do it,” said the senior-to-be. “Brighton doesn’t have a four-timer, girls or boys. And that’s where I’m hunting.” In the meantime, though? Get some sleep, kid. “Normally (Sunday), that’s my day off, but… (they) needed me and I told him I would be there,” Tilly said. “So it works good with a high school schedule.” Can we all give it up for a three-time high school champ, punching in the day after the biggest victory of her young life? “What makes (Saturday) special is that the highlighted match of state wrestling is a girls match,” Ron said. “Girls wrestling has come a long way.” Dad’s picture said 1,000 words. His smile said a million more. ...read more read less