Camp Verde’s wrestling team was in San Tan Valley at Poston Butte High School on Tuesday, March 16, and Wednesday, March 17, wrapping up its season at the Division IV state tournament.
The trip resulted in lengthy runs for two-thirds of the Cowboys wrestlers — something coach Larry Allred was proud of.
“One of the things we look at as coaches is how many wrestlers reach the second day,” Allred said. “We had 8 of 12 make the second day. I was really happy about that.”
The top finisher for Camp Verde was Angel Casillas, who finished fourth. Casillas reached the semifinals by notching a pair of pins. In the semifinals, Casillas met Gabriel Gonzales from Globe High School. While Allred liked the way Casillas wrestled in that mat, he was eventually pinned by Gonzales, who went on to win the state championship.
The loss to Gonzales sent Casillas into a match against Page’s Zach Ruiz — who won a state championship in 2019 — to determine who would wrestle in the battle for third and fourth place. The two had wrestled in February and while Ruiz eventually won that match via pin, Allred noted that day that he felt it was a winnable match for Casillas. The coach was proven right at state when Casillas won a 10-8 decision over Ruiz to get into the 3-4 matchup.
Even better for Camp Verde is that Casillas will have three more chances to get to and potentially win state, as he’s only a freshman.
While Casillas was the only Cowboys wrestler to place, three of his older teammates came close. Seniors Dade Woodard [132 pounds], Joseph Tinghitella [145 pounds] and Santiago Gomez all reached the “blood round,” where the winners are guaranteed to place. While all three fell just short, all got long runs to close their high school wrestling careers out. Another wrestler that impressed Allred was junior Logan Kurowski, who wrestled at 182 pounds.
“He got out of the first day and was only one round out of the blood round,” Allred said.
The state tournament wrapped up a season that could only be described as unusual for the Cowboys as well as all of their opponents.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, meets were significantly limited. A normal dual meet would match three or more schools and give wrestlers a chance to get more than one match in during a meet. This year, dual meets were duals in the most traditional sense of the word, with one team going one-on-one with another. That meant only one match for the wrestlers.
With the exception of state, there were also no tournaments. So, while a wrestler would get close to 60 matches in a normal season, this season offered roughly one-quarter of that.
“Like everything this year, it wasn’t a typical tournament,” Allred said of state. “But the competition was really tough.”
While the season is over, there is more wrestling to come. The Cowboys offseason program will begin on Monday, March 30. It will be free of charge and open to anyone from 4th to 12th grade. Practices will be in the Camp Verde Wrestling Room on Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Allred encourages anyone interested to contact him via phone at 821-3465 or email hlallred@yahoo.com.
