For the second straight year, Camp Verde High School’s wrestling team took third place at the Arizona Interscholastic Association Division IV state wrestling championship on Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Prescott Valley Event Center.
Cowboys senior Skyler Pike, sophomore Korben Uhler and junior Anthony Tinghitella were all crowned champions, and six of nine who competed placed in the top five.
“With nine people we did pretty well. We ended up taking third,” Cowboys head coach Tracy Tudor said. “We could have ended up in second, but, you know, when we went from a loaded team to not enough to win.”
Ten Cowboys had qualified for the state tournament. Junior Tristian Stanfield was the No. 1 seed and defending state champion in the 220-pound weight class, but he did not compete for a disciplinary reason.
In the team standings St. Johns High School was the champion with 171.5 points, Morenci Junior/Senior High School was runner-up with 146.5 and the Cowboys took third with 138.5.
The match of the day came in the 132-pound championship match. Tinghitella, seeded No. 2 overall, found himself down 5-3 with less than 30 seconds left in the final period against the No. 1 seed, St. Johns High School junior Kaiden Smith. Tinghitella, a transfer from Division II Ironwood Ridge High School, leveled the score with a reversal before getting a near fall with just a couple seconds left for the win.
He ended the year with 33 wins and two losses.
Uhler, seeded No. 1, completed his first undefeated high school season by getting two pins, a major decision and a 7-1 decision in the championship match over Round Valley High School junior Dylan Workman.
Uhler completed the season with a 52-0 record and now has an overall record of 96-1.
Pike ended his high school career with a second individual state title in the 113-pound weight class. He pinned his way through the state tournament until defeating Fountain Hills High School sophomore Dominic Mastroianni by a 10-2 major decision in the final match. Pike’s final record the last two season is 87-4, finishing 40-3 this year.
Camp Verde sophomore Keene Todacheene finished fourth in his first state tournament appearance, in the 106-pound division. Todacheene ended the year 50-7 overall.
Cowboys senior Daniel White [138] took fifth place and was 43-11 on the year. White was the No. 2 seed after winning the Division IV, Section I title the week prior, but he fell in the championship and then consolation semifinals to fall into the fifth place match.
Camp Verde freshman Conrad Brady was runner-up in the 170-pound class after dropping a 5-0 decision to Pima High School senior Ryne Lewis. Brady finished the year at 48-6 overall.
| Cowboys State Wrestlers |
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106: Soph. Keene Todacheene, Fourth |
With most of the team returning next year, another year of experience for those returning plus the addition of a middle school heavyweight wrestler, Camp Verde should be poised for another state title run.
“We’re losing a couple tough guys with Daniel White and Skyler Pike, but we are returning more quality than any other teams in [Division IV]. We’ve got three first place, a fifth and a fifth,” Tudor said. “It’s pretty good, it’s exciting. I wish our numbers were more, but we’ve got some freshmen that are going to be sophomores next year that are going to be coming in all summer long, so they’ll make up about a year’s worth of wrestling. Hopefully they’ll do something for us, and we’ve got a really good kid coming in from middle school and he’s going to end up helping us quite a bit with the heavyweights.”
