Area wrestlers cap season with state crowns

WINDOW ROCK – The wait is finally over for three area prep wrestlers.

On Saturday night, Chinle’s Carli Jones, Page’s Connor Peterson and Winslow’s Michael Romero ended their state title drought as they emerged as winners in their respective brackets at the Arizona Interscholastic Association state wrestling tournament at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Snowflake senior Devin Kinlicheenie captured his third consecutive state crown by winning the 215-pound weight class at the Division III level.

Kinlicheenie earned a fall over Cactus Shadows wrestler Jax Finch late in the second period. The Snowflake senior finished his season at 54-1 overall.

In the Division II girls tournament, Jones went the distance with Mica Mountain senior Harper Frost as the Chinle grappler posted a 3-0 win in overtime for the 126-pound title.

“I’m just very thankful that all my hard work paid off,” said Jones, who improved to 39-10 overall. “I’m glad that I was able to win state.”

After a scoreless tie, Jones found an opening as she lunged at Frost with 34 seconds into the overtime session for a takedown.

“I think she was getting tired because she started to go down on her knees,” Jones said of Frost. “She tried to shoot at me, but she hesitated on me. When I saw that, I reacted and I was able to score on her.”

The Chinle grappler admitted that it took some time for her championship win to set in.

“Right after the match, I just realized how big this is,” Jones said. “I had a lot of support behind me with my parents, aunties, uncles, cousins and the other wrestlers in my section.”

Jones also credited her coaches for encouraging her. The staff includes head coach Nate Wagner and assistants Kim Bert and Neil Wagner.

“They always tell me to not doubt myself because they knew that I could do it,” Jones said of her coaches. “They were really happy that I won.”

With it being her sophomore year, Jones understands that there is going to be a target on her back for the next two seasons. With that, she’s looking to work on her craft during the offseason.

“What I want to do is definitely get stronger because I want to repeat,” Jones said. “I just want to keep focus.”

In the Division IV boys tournament, Romero improved his record to 59-2 after pinning all of his opponents in the 144-pound bracket as the tournament’s second seed.

“To be honest, my mentality was there the whole tournament,” Romero said. “It was shaky at first, but when I warmed up with my pre-match stuff, I felt good for every match.

“I just felt loose and ready to go,” he added. “I just felt confident that I could pin all those kids.”

The Winslow senior faced top-seeded Luke Grainger of Miami in the finals. The Miami senior earned pins over Mogollon’s Brody Porter and St. Johns’ Vincent Tullie in the earlier rounds.

“Brody and Vincent wrestle in my section,” Romero said, “and they’re pretty big studs, so I knew it was going to be a tough match.”

Winslow coach Kendal Ybarra conceded that Grainger was a “dangerous opponent” for Romero.

“Luke is very good with his feet, so we had a game plan of getting a simple takedown,” Ybarra said. “Once he got that simple takedown, Michael slid in his specialty, which is the arm bar on the wrist.

“Once Michael took him down, man, it happened so quick that we didn’t realized he pinned him,” he added. “It just happened so quick.”

That fall happened 59 seconds into the match, which surprised the Winslow wrestler.

“I was expecting a tougher match,” Romero said. “I thought he was gonna put more into the match but as soon as I overpowered him I put my shoulders into his shoulders and I turned him.

“I stuck him on his back and I pinned him,” he added.

Since winning the state title, it has opened some doors for the Winslow senior as he has received some interest from some college coaches.

“Actually, I’ve been looking into,” Romero said. “A lot of coaches have been reaching out to me. It’s going to really depend on which colleges are going to give me the best offer.”

At 132, Petersen entered the state tournament as the wrestler to beat in his weight class as he earned the top seed.

The Page junior passed with flying colors as he defeated Northwest Christian’s Deebo Vitale in the finals.

“He’s been locked in all season long,” Page coach Leland Billie said of Peterson. “He started the year off pretty strong, and then he had an early injury that he had a battle through to where he had to rehab his knee.”

Despite sitting out for a month, Billie said Peterson remained focused as he captured the 3A North Region meet and the Sand Devil Classic while adding a runner-up finish at the Doc Wright Invitational in Winslow.

“He just kept pushing and pushing,” the Page coach said of his pupil. “It ended up paying with the section title and the state title.”

In the state championship match, Peterson scored a late reversal to post a 3-1 win to give him that two-point edge.

“The Northwest Christian kid went up 1-0 on him and Connor ended up getting poke in the eye and we got a point for that,” Billie said. “At that point, I talked to Connor during that injury timeout, and we wanted him to push the tempo more. We wanted him to attack more and he was able to get that reversal pretty late in the match.

“He was getting close to getting that kid on his back, and if we had 30 seconds left we were going to get some back points,” he added.

Other state placers include Tuba City’s Rias Moreno placing sixth at 138 pounds and Page senior Warren Wall taking fifth at 215.

“Warren busted his forehead open right above his eye in his last match,” Billie said. “He had a big gash and, you know, we had the trainers tape him up. He was bleeding through the tape.

“He just went after the guy and he just attacked and attacked and he was able finish fifth for us,” Billie added.

In the girls tournament, Window Rock’s Paige Kee placed third at 165 while Page’s Logan Rivers placed sixth in that same weight class.

At 132, Monument Valley’s Makayla Rock took fourth while Chinle’s Raidanna Sutton placed sixth. Winslow’s McKenna Hardy earned a fourth-place medal at 138 and Window Rock freshman Lucaiva Begay took sixth at 185.

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