Four Camp Verde High School wrestlers won their individual weight divisions Dec. 18 and 19 as the Cowboys smacked down Hopi High School to win the 16-team Veterans Memorial Invitational at Window Rock.
“Hopi’s pretty tough,” head coach Tracy Tudor said after CVHS routed the Bruins, 67-18. “They had the best record in Pool A, and we were in Pool B, so we wrestled for the championship.
“We beat them pretty bad.”
Tudor reserved his highest individual accolades for senior Matt Mejia, who rolled undefeated through his five dual matches Dec. 18 to win the 138-pound title in just two matches the next day.
“He’s really stepping up,” Tudor said. “He shows up to every practice, his attitude’s really great: He’s doing a heck of a good job [leading] by example.”
Mejia pinned Chinle High School’s Tyler Tohee in 1:27 before taking down Ian Lameman, of Red Mesa High School, in 1:13, for the title.
“Red Mesa had a pretty strong team,” Tudor said. “Window Rock had pretty strong kids.
“We’re getting stronger all the time.”
Daniel White certainly is. The CVHS junior made short work of Piñon High School’s Vernell Benally, pinning him in just over two-and-a-half minutes, before taking down Christian Barrios, of Kingman High School, in 3:44 for the 113-pound title.
Senior Alex Casillas used his defeat of Blue Ridge High School’s Zavion Navarro as a springboard to a 120-pound championship — one won at the expense of his brother, Ezekiel, a junior, who had to forfeit his 120-pound title bout.
“What happened is, we put Ezekiel on another team, and he pinned all his matches up to the championship,” Tudor said after Casillas pinned his three Dec. 19 opponents in less than 2:10 combined. “So we wouldn’t let he and his brother wrestle.”
Ezekiel Casillas took down Red Mesa’s Kolby Begay in 34 seconds before needing just 50 seconds to pin Jimmyzan Redhorse, from host Window Rock, in the semifinal.
Junior Hayden Uhler followed with a pair of pins of his championship-round opponents in less than a minute each, including a 35-second takedown of Brandyn Wingfield, from Catalina High Magnet School, of Tucson, to take the 126-pound title.
The Cowboys also had four runners-up by weight class, including 285-pound sophomore Jesus Curiel, who took just over a minute to pin his first-round opponent before falling in 45 seconds to Red Mesa’s Chadley Sagg.
The three other second-place finishes were the best this season for senior Kyle Little, junior Oscar Berrelez III and sophomore Anthony Chagolla.
Little lost the 138-pound title match, 16-3, to Chinle High School’s Zackary Ute.
“Berrelez wrestled well at 160 [pounds],” Tudor said. “We were surprised.”
Chagolla beat Window Rock’s Kiyahn Bullhead, 10-2, and also won on points, 12-3, in his second championship match before falling in a 6-3 decision to Window Rock’s Carnelius Nez.
Junior Hulices Felix made it to the third-place match before a wrist injury forced him to withdraw from his bout with Blue Ridge’s Earlson Begay and take fourth place.
Sophomore Kevin Oothoudt was pinned twice by Kingman High School’s Danny Taylor to get fifth at 152 pounds.
Besides Ezekiel Casillas, senior Jesse Etienne and sophomore Jay McFarland also wrestled for other schools for match experience, as there were other wrestlers ahead of them in their weight divisions.
McFarland, wrestling for Shiprock, N.M., High School, went 1-1 with a 50-second pin Dec. 19 for sixth place at 145 pounds.
Along with 195-pound senior Hawk Brown, neither Etienne nor sophomore Robert Williams placed. Both 182-pound wrestlers fell out of medal consideration despite Etienne pinning Chinle’s Wasey Begay in 34 seconds for Utah’s Monument Valley High School.
“We had 16 kids wrestle, so with us, we’re pretty close as a group so far,” Tudor said. “There’s a lot of outside negative influence that can work against a team, but you’ve got that every year.”
Although the Cowboys did not have a wrestler represented at 106 or 225 pounds, Tudor anticipates the imminent return, in the former weight class, of junior West Phillips.
“He’ll be able to make weight,” Tudor said. “Part of his issues were grades. The first semester, he got so far down, he couldn’t drag himself out.”
So while the program appears to have a solid core of wrestlers back for the second half of the season, Tudor still wants the focus to remain home after the holidays.
So CVHS has canceled its appearance Friday and Saturday, Jan. 8 and 9, at the Joseph City Invitational in order to focus on Senior Night and a multiple meet with Mayer, Mingus Union and Rough Rock high schools at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12.
“I look forward to everybody buckling down in their schoolwork and making the grades like they’re supposed to,” Tudor said. “We want everyone to graduate.”
For full Window Rock results and more photos, please see the Wednesday, Dec. 30, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
