Third-grader Kai Miller captured his first state championship without conceding a single point Saturday, March 29, capturing his second top tournament finish in a row to help lead the Mingus Mountain Muckers to a fifth-place finish out of 57 teams at the Arizona-USA Kids State Folkstyle Championships in Casa Grande.
Miller, named team Most Valuable Player, pinned every opponent in the 55-pound weight division to improve on his second-place finish last year.
“Miller … was unstoppable on his way to becoming a state champion,” Muckers head coach Klint McKean said. “His quick defense and powerful pinning combinations were too much for his opponents to handle.”
Two weeks prior to State, Miller also placed first in the 58-pound class at the Terminator World Championships in Prescott Valley, which hosted over 1,000 wrestlers from eight different states, according to McKean.
“Placing at the Terminator is more difficult than placing at State,” he said. “We wrestled athletes from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah. With such stiff competition, 9 of our 12 wrestlers still went home with medals.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, April 2, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
