Jessica Serrano
Staff Reporter
Imagine you're in an arena, surrounded by over a hundred people. One goal to make history, One chance to win.
The Boy's Wrestling team has won the Division 2 AIA Team Wrestling Championship. We interviewed Coach Flanigan on the results of the Division 2 AIA Team Wrestling Championships, this is what he said; “It is always fun to win. Winning something as rare and difficult as a State Title is a special kind of experience. Very few schools or teams ever win a State Title in a sport. It feels more like an honor than fun.” The State Tournament was very close. Ironwood scored 191 ½ pts vs 2nd place had 189 pts. Ironwood was behind by 22.5 pts on the [third] day of the tournament and they had to win 7 out 9 championship matches while Canyon View had to lose a lot of their final matches in order for Ironwood to win. We ask how close the matches were, Coach Flanigan said “This was considered an impossible [outcome for victory] by most spectators. Everything fell into place at the last second to get the win. There were some very close individual matches that kids won and lost throughout the tournament. The boys had to keep grinding and not lose hope as we came down the wire to the final round of the tournament. Canyon View was talking trash all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday like they had it locked up. Truth be told Canyon View has been talking trash for several months”. Several wrestlers were injured at the end of the season. Their Coach said “They stepped up big to continue competing even though they were injured”. The wrestlers' injuries throughtout the season vary from Beauvais with a knee and shoulder injuries, Julian Macias a knee injury, Jordan Beauvias a knee and shoulder injury, Daniel McCarthy a shoulder injury, Pablo Macias a back, knee, and hand injury, Adrian Ucelo a back injury and Daniel McCarthy with a shoulder injury. All these wrestlers fought through the pain and continued playing in their matches. We asked how their team prepared for championships, Coach Flanigan said “We have been working hard for years in season and out of season. Most of the team lifts weights, practices, and competes 10 months out of the year to reach the top competitive level. Most of our team has competed at tournaments not just in Arizona but all over the country. This season we went to all the toughest Arizona tournaments in season to keep our edge since we had such a strong crew”. We also asked Who made this possible for the team, he said “ I guess you would have to say God created the opportunity for such a special group of kids to come together at the same time at one school and be positioned to succeed even in the face of the constant adversity that plagued the team all year. There were so many things that fell into place at the very end after the season had been full of setbacks, injuries, illness and disappointments and all manner of challenges.
A special thank you should also be made to Justin Beauvais for his coaching. His addition to the staff really helped the team reach a new level of success. The wrestling [team] has had winning records for 20+ straight seasons and several Sectional titles but Coach Beauvais really helped elevate the teams competitive edge”. The state placers , in First place: Julian Macias, Pablo Macias, Markell Rivera-Chain. Second Place Xavier Lerma, Third place AJ Lopez, Jordan Beauvais, Daniel Mccarthy II. Fourth and fifth place Aaron Manone in 4th, JJ Beauvais in 5th. Congratulations to all the wrestlers and the coach (Sean Flanigan, Justin Beauvais, Lamont Williams Jr) for winning the Division 2 AIA Wrestling Championships.
Image Credit: IHS Wrestling
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