Snowflake wrestler seeking third state crown
Navajo Times | Quentin Jodie
Snowflake’s Devin Kinlicheenie works on Jordan Gene of Gallup during pool play action Friday at the Pat Kenny Invitational in the 215-pound division. Kinlicheenie, who captured gold at state last year, started 2024-25 season with a first-place win at the Holbrook-hosted meet.
HOLBROOK, Ariz. – The underlying theme for Snowflake’s Devin Kinlicheenie is to three-peat.
The two-time Division III state wrestling champions at 215 pounds is seeking his third consecutive state crown. Last season, Kinlicheenie amassed an impressive 55-0 record, which included a mind-boggling 53 pins.
“I want to dominate again,” Kinlicheenie said on Friday during the Pat Kenny Invitational. “I don’t want to be in any close matches this year. The last couple of years, I haven’t been really shooting that much, so I’m going to shoot more this year.”
At the Holbrook High hosted meet, Kinlicheenie won all of five of his matches with pins at the two-day tournament. In the finals, he pinned Piñon’s Jobryant Charley in the second period.
“I want to pressure people because my conditioning is so much better than everyone else’s,” Kinlicheenie said. “I’m not the biggest, strongest, fastest, but I feel like I have the most technique out of all these guys, no matter who it is, how big the school is and what uniform they have on.”
And although he values his two state crowns, Kinlicheenie says last season’s championship was pretty special as his older brother, Troy, captured his first state crown at 138. The two Kinlicheenie brothers dedicated their state crowns to their late uncle Stetson Begay, who passed away weeks before the state wrestling meet.
“It was cool to see him to finally win one,” Devin said of his older siblings state win.
Since winning his state title in mid-February, Kinlicheenie has been staying busy. Any chance he got the Snowflake senior was in the wrestling room, working on his craft.
“We’re in the room like four days every week, even in the summers,” Kinlicheenie said. “What gets me going is that it’s just not me, it’s the whole tribe, you know, my brothers, my dad and my coaches.
“I’ve been working with my older brother, Terrell, and he’s gotten me so much better,” he added.
As a state champion, Kinlicheenie got invited to compete in a national tournament in Virginia Beach, Virginia. At that tournament he wrestled against other state champions as he was one win away of making the medal rounds.
“I didn’t wrestle as good as I could have,” Kinlicheenie said. “I could have wrestled a little bit better. For me it was a learning experience because there’s always room for improvements.”
Looking ahead, Kinlicheenie says he’s looking over his options of wrestling at the next level. He has a few offers, but he hopes to wrestle with his brothers Tyrell and Troy for the same collegiate program.
“We want to try and go together,” Kinlicheenie said. “There’s a couple (schools) that have reached out to me, but nothing too serious yet. I’m going to wait it out a little bit to see what my options are.”
“It’d be cool to go to a Division I program, but anywhere I go I want to get better,” he added. “I want to compete, too. I don’t want to go somewhere just to sit behind someone.”
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow