Chandler stops another lengthy Sunnyside streak in wrestling

February 11, 2012 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Sunnyside High School has gone on some lengthy wrestling-title binges  The last one that nearly reached double-digits was broken up by Chandler High.

Well, Chandler struck again Saturday night in Prescott Valley. The Wolves duked it out with five other teams in one of the tightest state wrestling meets imaginable, edging out Cibola, Desert Vista, Horizon, defending champion Sunnyside and Corona del Sol to capture the Division I title at Tim's Toyota Center.

Sunnyside, which had won 14 straight titles either in 4A, 5A, 5A-II or Division I dating back to 1998, had a streak of eight in a row broken in 1989. Ending that streak was Chandler High, then coached by John Carlson in the meet held at Mesa High. The 2012 Wolves are coached by Vidal Mejia.

Chandler crowned two individual champs and had four others place in the top six. Chandler finished with 122 points, nipping runner-up Cibola 120.5. Right behind were Desert Vista (114), Horizon and Sunnyside at 113 and Corona del Sol at 110.

Leading the way for Chandler was 120-pounder Dalton Brady,  who completed an unbeaten season (39-0) and also repeated as a state champ. Tristan Moran won for the Wolves at  106. Others placing for Chandler were Deigo Alvarado (2nd at 170), Daniel Savage (4th at 160), Drew Lattner (5th at 220) and Curtis Buelna (6th at 152).

Cibola crowned just one state champ -- Pierre Gaud (145). The Raiders had six other wrestlers place to keep the heat on Chandler.

Desert Vista produced the most state champs of any school with three -- Robbie Mathers (132), Robert Sobarzo (138) and Alex Bambic (195). Horizon and Mesa High had two champs each. For Horizon it was unbeaten Samson Imonode (152) and Garrett Ryan (170). Mesa got a repeat title from Dorian Coleman (160) and a first title from Ben Andrew (220).

Rounding out the individual champs were Cesar Chavez's Dajour Reece (113), Mesa Mountain View's Octavio Penunuri (126), Highland's Christian Allen (182) and Sandra Day O'Connor's Matt Zismann (HWT). Allen joined Brady and Imonode as unbeatens for the season.

Eight wrestlers in the 2012 field were gunning for repeats, but only four succeeded -- Brady, Mathers, Coleman and Bambic. Cibola's Rafael Jaimes, Highland's Curt Done, Mesa Mountain View's Seth Monty and Sunnyside's Cedric Gonzalez  were denied repeats. Sunnyside did not have an individual state champ, a rarity for the state's most prolific wrestling program.