MVHS Wrestlers Grapple in Chaparral Tournament

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Wrestling team spent three days at Chaparral High School competing in a division dual Thursday and an individual tournament Friday and Saturday.

The Pirates began their dual at the heavyweight weight class (221-285) where Alex Paulino pinned his opponent to start Thursday night off right.

Austin Tafoya (106) then followed up with a pin of his own to bring the score to 12-0 Pirates.
Jorge Cervantes had a rough night and made a few costly mistakes. This resulted in him losing his match by fall at the 113 lb weight class.
Avery Stratton received a forfeit and wrestled an exhibition match, which he won.

Conner Batty lost by fall at the 126 lb weight class and Zachary Anderson (138) dropped his match 6-2.
With a forfeit being given up by The Pirates at 132 and 145, the team score was 27-18 Chaparral just past the halfway point in the dual.
Hayden Redd lost a heart breaker in overtime at 152 to bring the score to 30-18, Chaparral. Then William Uri got The Pirates back on track winning a tight match 4-0. Gavin and Cropper Henrie both received forfeits and Ryan McMurray lost by Major Decision bringing the score to 34-33 Chaparral with one match left in the duel.

Fortunately Jackson Mills was back in the lineup for The Pirates. He came out with extreme aggression pinning his opponent in the first period to give The Pirates the team win by a score of 39-34.
“It came down to the wire and Jackson really pulled through for the team,” said Pirate assistant coach Ryan Anderson.

The Pirates spent the next two days right back at Chaparral High School competing in their annual tournament. It was an extremely competitive meet with 28 teams from both Nevada and Utah in attendance.

The Pirates found themselves in 7th place overall after day one; with 10 of their 13 wrestlers still in the tournament, including Jorge Cervantes, Hayden Redd, William Uri, Gavin Henrie and Jackson Mills who were still in the championship bracket having not lost a match.

Day two proved to be more challenging. All but Gavin Henrie got beat out of the tournament before making it to the medal rounds. Cervantes, Redd, Uri all made it to the quarterfinals before losing their second matches. Jackson Mills made it to the semifinals and missed medalling by just one match.

The standout of the tournament was Gavin Henrie. Henrie pinned his Enterprise, UT opponent. Then he beat both his Palo Verde and Foothill opponents 8-3 to move on to the finals.
Unfortunately he wrestled a Sierra Vista opponent who was 44-4 on the season and bested Gavin in the final round.
“Second place in a tournament of that caliber gives us very high hope for Gavin as he vies for a state championship,” Anderson said.

The tournament resulted in a major slight to Vicente Pinto from Virgin Valley High School (120). Almost every tournament awards two outstanding wrestlers, one in the lower weights and one in the upper weights. The outstanding wrestler award is determined by votes from the coaches in attendance.

The Pirate coaches felt strongly that Vicente had earned this award. In the tournament Vicente had pinned his first opponent from Enterprise, UT; beat his Arbor View High opponent by Major Decision (10-0); then went on to pin his Desert Pines opponent in the finals. The Desert Pines wrestler had enjoyed an undefeated (37-0) season record up to that point.
“Pinto’s performance was without a doubt the most outstanding of the tournament and it’s a shame the coaches missed the opportunity to reward him with the honor he deserved,” Anderson said. “You definitely had our vote, Vicente!”