State bound

MV qualifies 11 wrestlers

WINSLOW, Ariz.

In the consolation semifinals the Monument Valley wrestling team scored eight pins in nine matches at the sectional meet last Friday afternoon.

“After that first pin it kept going,” MV coach Clyde McBride said. “It was a like having a good virus.”

Those pins helped the Mustangs qualify 11 wrestlers for the Arizona Division IV state wrestling meet, which starts tomorrow at the Prescott Valley Event Center.

“I am super proud of the them,” McBride said. “I haven’t coached for a couple of years and I came back. In 2010, I put 14 in and this is the most since.”

McBride said during the season they had their ups-and-downs but they have come a long way.

“It’s been a tough season,” he said. “We’ve been fighting injuries and we’ve been fighting other issues and it’s good that we gelled and came together strong at the end. We always support each other and we all push one another.”

McBride said their success can be also be attributed to his assistant coach Harvey Starbuck, who hails from Colorado.

“I have the best assistant coach in the state of Arizona and he’s coached many state champions,” McBride said. “You are only as good as your staff and your wrestlers and I have the best of both.”

The Mustangs had two wrestlers make the finals in their respective weight class with Melton Curley at 106 and Winston Mike at 170 placing second.

“It surprised me,” Curley said of making the finals as he entered the sectional tournament with a 4-2 record.

The MV sophomore got on the mat for the first time this season at the Doc Wright Invitational in early January and at that meet he fractured his hand.

With his hand taped up was pinned in the third quarter of his match against St. Johns wrestler Gage Heap.

Of the two wrestlers in the finals, McBride was at a lost for words on what Mike accomplished.

“What he did was amazing,” McBride said of Mike. “If you had asked me about his odds of going to state two weeks ago it would not have been good.”

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