9 area wrestlers medal at state

WINDOW ROCK

Nine area athletes received medals at the recent Arizona Division IV state wrestling tournament.

The state tournament was held over two days last week with Winslow putting five wrestlers on the podium while Holbrook and Page got two each.

On the strength of their state placers the Bulldogs finished sixth overall in the team standings with 126 points.

“Overall, I was very proud of what they were able to do,” Winslow coach Scott Larsen said of his squad. “State is still state even though it’s a COVID year and, you know, there was a lot of great wrestlers there.”

Winslow junior Gage Thomas was the area’s top finisher as he reached the 195 title match, losing his final bout to top seed Diego Chavez, a Santa Cruz Valley High junior.

“I’m very proud of Gage,” Larsen said. “He went up against a kid that was a two-time state champion. We knew (Chavez) was going to be tough and we have a lot of respect for him but Gage went in there and tried his best.”

Thomas was pinned in the early going of the second period as he finished the shortened 2021 season with a 14-1 record.

Senior Max Foy capped his prep career with a fourth place finish at 106 while Kailar Charley (160), Cylis Gonzalez (220) and Rudy Gonzalez (285) all earned fifth place medals.

“Max finishing fourth was pretty impressive for me,” the Winslow coach said. “He had to gain a lot of weight to get to 106 from where he started. I think when he started as a freshman he was 80 pounds so it was good him to be successful.”

As for senior Cylis Gonzalez, Larsen said his pupil got caught in some matches to where he got pinned.

“We thought he was going to place a little higher but he got pinned so that didn’t work out too well for him,” he said.

But in the fifth-place match, he was able to pin Mica Mountain’s Travis Hickey.

Rudy Gonzalez, meanwhile, worked his way back into the medal rounds after winning his first match.

“He did very well and there was some interesting calls in a match that didn’t go his way,” Larsen said. “He ended up going for fifth and as a freshman that’s pretty impressive to place at state.”

Charley also had to work his way back as he won three of his last four matches, which included a forfeit over Page’s Hunter Richardson in the fifth place match.

“The kid from Page got injured so he wasn’t able to wrestle Kailar in the fifth-place match,” Larsen said.

Sand Devil coach Dakota Richardson said Hunter got hurt in the second round when Mogollon’s Trextan Reidhead slammed him to the mat.

“He separated his shoulder but he ended up winning his match,” Dakota said of his younger brother.

In his next match, Hunter defeated Globe’s Angel Hernandez, an opponent who eliminated him from last year’s state tournament.

“He beat that kid from Globe 8 to 4,” Dakota said.

With those two victories, Hunter reached the state semifinals but his separated shoulder started to take its toll.

The Page junior stayed as long as he could when he wrestled Willcox senior Ote Allsup, the eventual 160 champion.

“He got on the mat with the Willcox kid for 30 seconds but he was hurt real bad so we pulled him,” Dakota said.

Nonetheless, that earned Hunter a state medal despite forfeiting the rest of his matches.

At 113, Page senior Zach Ruiz got as far as the state semifinals but his lack of mat time started to show, Dakota said.

Ruiz capped his prep career with three state medals. He was the state champion two years ago and last year he was the reserve champion. He reached the podium one last time and earned a fifth-place medal last week.

“He was really disappointed,” the Page coach said of his pupil. “He came into the season without getting the full eight weeks like my other guys did. He came back out at the end of February so that gave him three weeks to prepare.”

Dakota said Zach hadn’t been on the mat for eight straight months since last year’s state tournament so he had a difficult time maintaining his stamina throughout his matches.

“He was trying to get as much cardio in with the three weeks of practice he had,” Richardson said. “It really showed going into the third period because he was just gassed. His conditioning caught up to him. That was really the main thing, the other guys were more conditioned.”

In addition to those two Page wrestlers, Dakota said Antwain Mejia (106) Shayne Ruiz (120) and Amacio Valenzuela (220) were one match from earning a state medal.

“They were really close,” he said. “They were up by points but they got stuck with a pin. It was very disappointing to see them lose but they were so close. It looks promising for the future though.”

Holbrook, meanwhile, got a third-place finish from sophomore Jason Ramirez at 120 and a fourth-place effort from sophomore Daniel Montijo.

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