Sunnyside (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

Sunnyside cruised to a 193 to 164 victory over Yuma Cibola Friday night in Prescott Valley to capture the 31st state wrestling team championship in school history but that wasn’t the only the only milestone of the night for the Blue Devils. Senior standout Roman Bravo-Young won his fourth straight championship which made him the 31st wrestler from the state Arizona to complete that feat. But that’s not all.

Bravo-Young entered the Division I state championships on Friday with a perfect 178-0 record and he won all four of his bouts to finish Saturday night with an incredible 182 straight wins with no losses. Former Morenci standout Waldo Gutierrez is second on the list with 178.

It’s important to point out that the record for total wins is 253 set by former Coolidge standout Eric Garcia from 2004 to 2007. Bravo-Young’s mark is for wins without a loss.

“I feel no more pressure,” Bravo-Young explained. “It took a lot of work and my family is crying and happy for me but it’s time for bigger and better things.”

Bravo-Young will be wrestling for NCAA power Penn State next year in the same 132–pound division that he has owned over the last four years.

The Blue Devils came into the medal round knowing they were in control with four wrestlers slated for the center mat on the final night. The point differential was just too much for other teams to overcome.

Sophomore standout Jesse Ybarra (24-0) beat Zack Kvavle of Corona Del Sol to capture the 113-division; Juan Manuel Garcia (50-1) beat Tariq Hornbuckle of Desert Vista in the 120-weight class; Vicente Loaiza (41-2) beat Chandler’s Chris Kelly in the 126-class and Bravo-Young won the 132 over Steven Jarman of Mesa.

Defending D-I champion Corona del Sol took fourth place (108). Sunnyside was the state runner-up to Corona del Sol last year and Cibola took third.

Other individual state champions from D-I include Zach Espalin (106) of Chandler, Bryce Nickel (138) of Corona Del Sol, Gator Groves (145) of Chandler, Aaron Gandara (152) of Cibola, Cody Lewis (160) of Desert Ridge, Pedro Medina (170) of Horizon, Kashawn Crump-Valencia (182) of Tucson, Jermiah Hollen (195) of Mountain View Mesa, Johnathun Garcia (220) of Mountain View Mesa and Tommy Mommer (285) of Cibola.

Groves, like Bravo-Young won his fourth straight individual championship.

Queen Creek. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

 

Queen Creek won the Division II state championship over Liberty 181 to 149.5 and Cienega took third with 137.5 points. Mountain View Marana outlasted Queen Creek 177.5 to 171 to claim the D-II championship last year and Liberty took third place with 139 points but the Bulldogs displayed lots of grit to win the state championship this year according to head coach Jake Goddard.

“Our team has character,” Goddard said. “Anyone who follows our team knows they are tough and work extremely hard but we didn’t our sectional. I challenged them this week to decide if they want to be just top five team or win a state championship.

Daunte Cartwright of Camelback won the 106-weight class, Raul Martinez of Desert View won the 113-class, Xavier Rico of Queen Creek won 120, Andrew Cota of Mountain View Marana took 126, Nathan Smith of Williams Field won the 132, Marcus Castillo of Mountain View Marana won the 138-weight class, Denen Fernandez of Queen Creek won 145, Gabriel Gallego of Desert Edge won 152, Nikolas Manuel of Queen Creek on 160, Shaun`dell Hawkins of Williams Field on 170, EJ Galvez of Campo Verde took 182, Miles Nuessle of Liberty won 195, Tarik Sutkovic of Ironwood won 220 and Koby Fike of Gila Ridge won 285.

The state playoffs for Division III and Division IV will conclude on Saturday, Feb. 10.