Camp Verde High School senior wrestler Hayden Uhler completed an impressive prep career on Friday, Feb. 11.
The oldest of five Uhler grapplers, Hayden won his fourth individual Division IV Arizona Interscholastic Association State title, this year in the 138-pound weight class.
“I’ve been working my butt off, that’s all it has been just working it off for this moment right here,” Hayden said. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment right here, to become a four-time winner, and it’s finally here and I feel great.”
In each of Uhler’s four seasons of AIA wrestling, he has wrestled in a different weight class, starting at 106 pounds as a freshman to win his first title.
As a sophomore, he moved up one weight class to 113 pounds—and went undefeated en route to his second title.
His junior year Uhler jumped two weight classes, to 126 pounds, and again went undefeated to become a three-time champion.
In his fourth and final year, Hayden again bumped up two weight classes, to 138 pounds, and completed the quartet of titles. For a third consecutive season, he finished undefeated.
Uhler finished his career with an overall record of 167-2, both losses during his freshman season.
Hayden is only the second Camp Verde wrestler to be a four-time individual state champion after 2015 graduate Ryan Allred.
In Hayden’s freshman and sophomore seasons, the Cowboys won Division IV State team titles as well. This season they took third.
After the 2015-16 season, Hayden was named to the All-Arizona Wrestling Team, decided by the staff at the Arizona Republic.
Uhler’s success has been a long time coming, but even then he feels it has not been perfect.
“I’ve been working since the second grade just for this moment right here. I feel like I’m living a dream,” Uhler said. “There’s a lot of room for improvement, but overall having only two losses in my whole high school career, I feel pretty good right now. I feel on top of the world.”
Uhler is still undecided if he will wrestle at the NCAA level.
