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GLENDALE — Buena’s Brent Madden and Tombstone’s Daniel Dotson led the three area high school teams in their respective weight classes at the state wrestling tournament on Saturday.
Madden, the No. 4 seed at 127 pounds, gave the Colts their highest state meet finish since Dan Southard became head coach at Buena six years ago.
The Buena junior wound up in second place after losing to the No. 2 seed, Richard Palencia of Maryvale, 15-1 in the finals at Jobing.com Arena.
Madden, who went all out in beating the No. 1 seed, Ryan Miller of Corona del Sol Friday in the semifinals by a fall, found the going pretty rough against Palencia, who entered the tournament with a 25-3 record and was 29-3 when he met Madden.
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“He was really tough and strong,” Madden said. “He was good at countering every move I made.”
Madden finished the tournament with a 4-1 record and for the season was 29-6.
Dotson opened the Class 1A/2A tournament with a pair of wins Friday that put him in the 154 pound semifinals against Yuma Catholic’s Alyosha Sandigo Saturday morning.
Sandigo entered the tournament with a 50-3 record and held on for a 4-1 win over Dotson that dropped the Yellowjacket wrestler into the consolation bracket where he defeated Antelope’s Curtis Fowler for the second time in the meet, 13-7, putting him in the match for third and fourth place.
But going up against Willcox’ Irving Quezada was a rematch of the regional final at Benson last week where Quezada beat Dotson, 17-6, in the championship finals.
Saturday’s match was much the same, except that Dotson, who was trailing 14-3, put a cradle move on Quezada with five seconds to go in the match and almost had him pinned before time ran out.
Buena had the only other medalist, that being Emilio Gonzales at 147 pounds.
Gonzales, the No. 3 seed in his weight class, came back in the consolation round Friday evening with a 3-2 win over Mountain View’s Preston Ferrin that put him in the medal round where he lost to Westwood’s Jake Dodge, 5-2, to finish sixth.
Corona del Sol and Red Mountain were battling for first and second place in the 5A, Division I, with Mesa High in third and Dobson, Mesa Mountain View and Highland trying to crack the top five.
Buena finished in 18th place with 55 points.
“Since we didn’t score any points in Saturday’s medal round we probably won’t make it into the team championships next week,” Southard said. Casa Grande will finish ahead of us and probably get the No. 15 or No. 16 berth.”
Sunnyside was running away with the 5A, Division II and had a 90-point lead going into the medal round where they had eight wrestlers going for first and second. Cibola will finish second with Kofa and Ironwood Ridge battling for third.
Bisbee sent three wrestlers into Saturday morning’s consolation round and neither made it to the medal round.
Jackie Garcia at 105 pounds, lost to Thatcher’s Win Wright, 13-6, to finish with a 2-2 state meet record. Garcia was one of several female wrestlers in the state meet in all classes.
“It was her third and best showing in a state meet,” Bisbee coach Richard Chavez said.
Dominic Gunsauley at 137 pounds, also bowed out with a 2-2 record after losing by a fall late in his bout with Benson’s Carlos Ravago. Bisbee’s third entry had to default his bout against Ralph Beard of San Carlos due to an injury he sustained in his 6-4 win over Wendell Ogle of Camp Verde Friday evening.
“It was one of those rare times we didn’t place anybody in the medal round,” Chavez said.
Traditionally, Bisbee has almost always had medalists at the state meet.
Camp Verde had the 1A/2A title well in hand entering the medal round. Benson and Thatcher battled for the No. 2 spot.
Congratulations Emilio and Brent wrote on Feb 10, 2008 9:21 PM:
Emilio, I am really proud of you this year: Congrats on Placing at STATE and finishing your year with an AIA 31-6 record which included a Region Championship, Gold at the Douglas Invitational, Gold at the Marana Invitional, Silver at the Salpointe Invitational and Bronze at the Las Cruces Tournament. You Rocked!
Mr. Gonzalez "