The Hawks are Gila 4A II wrestling champions and will take nine wrestlers to the state competition after Saturday’s competition at Sahuarita High School. Sahuarita finished second, edging Catalina 132-130 for the honor and will take seven wrestlers to state competition. Rio Rico’s undefeated heavyweight, Ricky Valdez, and 132-pounder Dakota Beach both pinned their opponents during Saturday’s match. “One of their goals early in the year was the region championship,” Rio Rico coach Brad Beach said. “If there’s any group of kids who deserve this championship, it’s this team right here.”

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Rio Rico

Rio Rico’s Brad Beach believes in planning for goals. “A lot of them wrote down ‘state championship.’ A lot of them mapped out how they were going to get there. They don’t miss practice, they work hard and hard work pays off – plain and simple,” Beach said.

Valdez, Rio Rico’s heavyweight, had the quickest match, pinning Catalina’s Andres Carino in 1:14 during the first period. Valdez used an arm bar and tried for a straight jacket, he said. “He was squirming around too much so I just got the arm and ran it hard.”

Valdez is defending state heavyweight champion and is undefeated this season. Being regional champions has its merits and drawbacks, Valdez said. “I’m glad but it’s like I have a big X on my back. Everybody’s going for me but I’m going to come out on top.”

Valdez has a lot to be thankful for in the regional victory he said. “My coaches and my teammates push me really hard,” he said. “My mom is up there (in the stands).”

Other champs

Rio Rico has five region champions this year. Felipe Mabante, 154 pounds, has been working on it since his freshman year, he said. “My freshman year I got third, last year I got second and this year, first. It’s awesome. It just feels good to win,” he said.

This is also the first regional championship for Ariel Andrade in the 142-pound class. Andrade, a senior, has been working for four years towards the goal. “It feels good,” Andrade said.

His match started slow, but Andrade put points on the board in the second period and finished with a 12-3 victory. “I just felt him to see what he was doing. Going into tilts, I got as many points as I could,” he said.

Dakota Beach, wrestling Sahuarita’s Anthony Vicente in the 132-pound class, also started slow. Beach only put up two points in the first two-minute period. “It was just hard to get him flat. I was going for a three-quarters stack. I had a little trouble, but finally got that at the end,” he said.

That stack gave Beach the pin in 4:31.

Beach placed third the last two years at state, and is looking to better that this year, as a junior. “It should be pretty tough but I’m hoping to get that state championship title,” he said.

Marky Lopez, at 121 pounds, is Rio Rico’s lightest regional champion. He beat Cholla’s Dorian Ramos, 5-0. “It was a tough match but, at the end, I prevailed,” he said. That put Lopez at 32-3 on the season.

A freshman, Lopez has eight years of wrestling freestyle to rely on. Working up a sweat made the match harder, Lopez said. “It was just slippery. He was all sweat. I felt through the whole match I was going to take it,” he said.

Lopez wrestles freestyle with Brad Beach and is from a wrestling family, he said. “My brother, Steven took state (for Nogales) last year. My uncle (Joel) also wrestled. “The family comes out to show their support, Lopez said. His grandfather, Manuel, was in the stands.

State tourney

State competition is in two stages. Individual state matches are scheduled for Thursday and Friday at Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott and team matches in Peoria Feb. 20. The top three wrestlers from regional competition in each weight class go to state competition, Brad Beach said.

The top 10 teams from individual competition go to team competition.

Rio Rico finished fourth in Arizona 4A-II last year. “This year we have a good chance,” Valdez said. “We’re going to make it as a team. We want it as a team.”

Rio Rico has nine wrestlers set for state competition after regionals:

Eric Jeong, 2nd, 114 lbs.; Marky Lopez, 1st, 121 lbs.; Isaac Orozco, 3rd, 127 lbs.; Dakota Beach, 1st, 132 lbs.; Ariel Andrade, 1st, 142 lbs.; Felipe Mabante, 1st, 154 lbs.; Eddie Lerma, 3rd, 162 lbs.; Pablo Chavez, 3rd, 173 lbs.; and Ricky Valdez, 1st, HWT.