Sand Devils take third at sectional meet

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Feb 20, 2025 | Wrestling |

WINSLOW – The Page Sand Devils landed seven wrestlers on the podium during Saturday’s Arizona Interscholastic Association Division IV, Section II meet.

Four of those wrestlers made the finals in their respective weight classes with junior Conner Peterson (132 pounds) and senior Reegan Talker (285) winning gold while junior Raiden Lovett (175) and senior Warren Wall (215) taking silver.

“We brought 12 and we ended up with seven qualifiers,” Page coach Leland Billie said. “It’s not too bad. I mean, this season we were hit with a lot of injuries. I had two seniors that had to pull out last week because their injuries were too bad that they couldn’t finish out the season, so we had some JV kids come up.”

One of those JV wrestler that moved up was junior Raiden Lovett, who placed second at 175 pounds.

“He wrestled JV all year and a little bit of varsity here and there and he was a surprise for us this weekend,” Billie said.

In the 285-pound finale, Talker pinned Chinle’s Adriano Sanisya 48 seconds into the match for the sectional crown.

“I just listened to my coach, and he told me to control the center, which I did,” Talker said of his strategy. “I got him in a bear hug, and I took him down.”

Prior to Saturday’s match, the two wrestlers split the regular season meetings they had with Talker beating the Chinle wrestler at the Super Regionals on Jan. 4 in a fall.

A couple of weeks later, Sanisya returned the favor with a win over the Page wrestler at the Sand Devil Classic on Jan. 25.

As the sectional champ, Talker (15-7 overall) was seeded fourth for the upcoming Arizona Division IV State Championships, which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. This is Talker’s first state qualification.

“I feel good about it,” Talker said of making state. “I just got to try hard at practice and go from there.”

Peterson earned the top seed for his weight class at 132 as the junior wrestler hopes to improve from his state runner-up from last season. Two years ago, he placed fourth as a freshman.

“I feel like I’m getting very close, and I feel like I deserve it,” Peterson said of winning his first state crown. “I work my butt all summer, so I feel like I deserve this year. I’m bringing that mentality to the state tournament.”

And although he has only 13 matches under his belt, Peterson said he likes his chances for a top finish.

“I injured my knee and that put me out for three weeks,” Peterson said. “It kind of set me back because I wasn’t as conditioned as I should have been in the middle of the season.

“But I’ve worked really hard, and I feel like I’m in good condition,” he added. “I’m healthy to compete for the state tournament.”

At last week’s sectional meet, Peterson won two matches in dominant fashion to reach the finals. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to wrestle his final match as Monument Valley junior Justin Yazzie forfeited that match due to an injury.

The Sand Devils also received a pair of third-place finishes from seniors Tsinajinnie Green at 138 and Landon Mansker at 165 while senior Ian Yellowhair placed fourth at 190.

Behind those seven wrestlers, Page finished third in the team standings with 140.5 points behind sectional champ St. Johns (254.5) and runner-up Mogollon (244.5).

“I’m real proud with how we wrestled,” Billie said. “We wrestled hard today, and I think it showed in our results. That is something to proud of and I’m very happy.”