Five Camp Verde High School wrestlers finished in the top three of their weight divisions Saturday, Dec. 5, but missed entries in four other classes ultimately dropped the Cowboys to third place at the Verde Duals.
“Great finish, considering we gave away over 100 points with four empty slots,” head coach Tracy Tudor said after CVHS finished behind Kofa High School, from Yuma, and Sunnyside High School of Tucson, winner of the 14-team tournament at CVHS. “Our team is back on track.”
That was, more or less, the sentiment shared by junior Hayden Uhler.
“This tournament kind of [made] me open up my weaknesses,” he said. “Let me know, I need to do this more, or that.”
In the most competitive championship match of the tournament, the two-time state champion edged his 126-pound Sunnyside adversary on points, 3-2.
“I was waiting to see what he would do,” Uhler said. “I would drop down to my knee, kind of find an opening. He’d get a little frustrated, and that’s when I would go in.”
In the final 11 seconds of the championship, Uhler intercepted the Blue Devil in midair after he attempted to jump him for a pin, slamming him to the mat.
“It’s kind of scary when it’s that close, you know?” he said. “As soon as he tried to come over, I just kind of swung him on his back. I knew I was good at that point.”
While sophomore middleweight Kevin Oothoudt was injured, senior 126-pound Duals winner Matt Mejia challenged his other absentee teammates to fill the slots at 106, 138, 152 and 160 pounds.
“There’s a few kids, they have legitimate family problems — like a kid that’s in Mexico right now with his mom,” he said. “But there’s a couple kids that, it’s kind of unacceptable they’re not wrestling right now.
“We were pretty dominant without all our kids. So if we filled in those vital spots, we’re definitely a top contender.”
Although Mejia pinned Sunnyside senior Carlos Hernandez in less than three-and-a-half minutes, the senior was still glad after his 132-pound final to be done with his eighth match in two days.
“I’m dying,” he said. “It takes a lot of energy to hold those tilts. My forearms are really hurting.”
Mejia, who is being eyed as a college wrestler in Iowa, Nebraska or in the Coast Guard or Naval academies, felt the tension between the Cowboys and Sunnyside, the state’s preeminent wrestling program, build in his final.
“It’s always cool to take down a rival,” Mejia said. “At this point, after some of the bigger tournaments I’ve wrestled in, I’m cooling down, as weird as that sounds. Then we’re going to peak up at State again.”
Junior Jesus Curiel was the surprise of duals, pinning his first seven heavyweight opponents before falling in a close final to his 285-pound adversary from Sunnyside in his highest career place.
“I felt stronger,” he said. “We all know this is one of the best tournaments on our schedule, so I feel this is going to be helping me a lot more at State, too.”
Three-time state champion Alex Casillas would fall in his semifinal before recovering for third place, as did junior Anthony Chagolla.
Casillas, a senior, pinned Verrado High School senior Robert Aceves in 5:10.
“Our team is getting better,” Tudor said. “Coming back each week, we are getting stronger and stronger.”
Anthony and Favian Chagolla, respective nephew and grandson to Cowboys assistant coach Mario Chagolla Sr., finished in the top four in their weight classes. Anthony Chagolla, a junior, finished third at 170 pounds, while Favian Chagolla, a freshman, took fourth at 220 pounds.
Junior Daniel White lost his third-place match by points, 13-6.
Senior Kyle Little took fourth place at 145 pounds and freshman Tristan Stanfield did the same at 182 pounds after losing their third-place matches.
Senior Hawk Brown took sixth place at Verde Duals, at 195 pounds, after losing his fifth-place match to Yuma Kofa.
The Cowboys were in fourth coming into the second day of the two-day tournament but rallied to surpass Verrado High School, of Buckeye.
The Cowboys look to have a full team back for the Veterans Memorial Invitational in Window Rock on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 18 and 19.
For more photos and all Camp Verde High School finishers at Verde Duals, please see the Wednesday, Dec. 9, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
