Matilda waltzed.

And grinned.

And dabbed.

And dominated.

“Dad, Dad!” Matilda “Tilly” Hruby shouted from the floor of Ball Arena to her father, Ron, 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 right forearm, it says, “She gave me purpose.”

She gave Colorado a 3-time state champion.

Hruby ended the four-peat hopes of Pomona’s Timberly Martinez in the Class 5A girls 155 final, one of the last at the 2026 CHSAA Colorado State high school wrestling championships, winning 8-3.

Hruby rose 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 aiming 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 Arena in pink and brown ponytails. She paced her side of the mat quickly, one eye on Martinez, one eye on the matches wrapping up next door. She stopped only to whisper in the ear of coach Eric Heinz, whose mohawk and moustache were the same shade as her ponytails.

On the other side, Martinez was comparatively still. She nodded to the coaches’ instructions or to the music piped onto the floor.

Hruby’s title capped a 29-0 prep season. Three of those wins were over Martinez (34-4).

With 12 seconds left in the first, leading 5-0, Hruby had Martinez’s arm twisted in an awkward angle.

“Take it,” Heinz shouted from the corner. “Take it all day!”

Martinez ran out of time.  And chances. But not for lack of spirit — 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,” father Jake Martinez said. “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 Coloradan 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. 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.”

Dad looked on Saturday. Smiling from here to Reno.

Both dads, actually.

“I can tell when my daughter’s not ready,” Ron told me before the match, “and she’s ready. I can tell. Yeah. She’s got it sunk into her brain. She’s fierce. She’s ready for it.”

She looked it. Right from the jump. And to think, they were teammates — friends, even — before they were sparring partners. The Western Surburban 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 where 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 dads 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 are two officials here.”

Tilly has been working out with the USA Wrestling, 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 of weeks after that, it’s on to D.C.

“I’ve just seen her confidence grow,” Ron 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.

“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.