MV grappler earns outstanding wrestling award: Mustang boys place fifth

WINDOW ROCK – It took all but 42 seconds for Monument Valley’s Joseph Rodriguez to pin his final opponent on Saturday night.

Rodriguez used the Guillotine move to subdue San Juan (Utah) wrestler Deklan Helquist for the 126-pound title at the Page-hosted Sand Devil Classic.

“He set me up with the Guillotine and I ran it as quick as I could because he had my head,” Rodriguez said of the chokehold move. “I made sure that everything was tight, and I eventually got the pin.”

The MV senior wrestled four matches, earning three pins and one tech fall that netted him the CUJO award. The CUJO is merited on how well an individual wrestles and Rodriguez earned that distinction in the lower weights division.

“This has opened my eyes and it’s motivating me to finish strong, especially with it being my senior year,” said the MV grappler, who improved to 32-4 for the season. “Overall, I felt like I wrestled well for the tournament because in past tournaments I’ve been placing second.”

Rodriguez was one of three MV wrestlers to make the finals as sophomore Justin Yazzie scored four falls en route to the 120-pound title. In the finals Yazzie pinned Desert Vista’s Asher Stubbs in the second period and improved to 30-3 overall.

“He’s coming along great,” Monument Valley coach Clyde McBride said of Yazzie. “You know, he’s just dropped down a weight class to 120 and I think that is where it’s going to fit him better and he’s going at it pretty well.”

At 138, senior Jaron Anagal placed second, losing in a fall to Desert Vista’s Ryder Kinneman in the finals.

“He got caught in an awkward move and he ended up getting pinned,” the MV coach said.

The Mustang boys also got a pair of sixth-place finishes from sophomore Delroy Johnson at 106 and senior Leander Tsinigine at 285.

As a team, the McBride-coached team placed fifth overall with 158.5 points as MV filled in 13 of 14 wrestlers at the Page tournament.

Canyon View, Utah took the team title with 280 points ahead of Casteel, Arizona (278.5), Desert Vista, Arizona (235), San Juan, Utah (172) and MV.

The host team, Page, took seventh with 152 points.

“I’m really happy with what we did,” McBride said. “We were without two of our starters and I think if we had them, we could have been in the top 3 easily.”

Girls

The MV girls took eighth overall with 65 points at the She Devil Classic headed by a second-place finish from Cheyanne Jones, who wrestled at 235 pounds.

“I was really proud of her,” McBride said. “She’s been working hard the last couple of years, and I was just happy with what she did at the tournament.”

Jones went 3-1 at the She Devil Classic, improving her overall mark to 9-8 overall.

“She’s been battling injury for a little bit, so she doesn’t have as many matches under her belt,” McBride said.

Sophomore Emily Curley took third at 100 pounds while Becynthia Bryant (114) and Kylee Bailey (138) took fifth in their respective weight classes.

“She’s never really wrestled before,” McBride said of Curley. “She’s always just watched her brothers and now that her brothers have graduated, she decided that she”d try it.

“She’s placed at almost every tournament this year, and she’s stood very well,” he added.

The tournament in Page was MV’s final one as the Mustangs are preparing for the upcoming sectional and state meets.

The state qualifying sectionals for girls is scheduled for Feb. 3 at Payson High and the boys is slated for Feb. 10 at Winslow High.

The boys and girls state meet will be held Feb. 15-17 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

McBride is hoping to field 10 boys and seven girls for state.

With changes made by the Arizona Interscholastic Association, the girls will have two separate divisions at the state meet. In previous years, the AIA had one classification for all female wrestlers.

“It’s always something we fought for – to split the big schools and small schools,” McBride said. “But girls wrestling has gotten extremely competitive in the state of Arizona.”

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