Three local individuals won titles, all by pin, in their final matches of the day to maintain their dominance this season. That highlighted the day for area schools, as Dumas narrowly missed out on the team title despite not having one of those three winning wrestlers.
Dumas scored 482 points, narrowly missing out on the team title by 8.5 points to Lubbock Cooper.
Appropriately enough, the first local winner of the day came from the host school, as Caprock’s Deja Salazar cruised to the 107-pound title. Salazar won in quick fashion, as she pinned Chatfield, Colorado’s Lola Gonzalez in 44 seconds, the second fastest victory of the championship round.
“I did not expect it to go that quickly because last year (Gonzalez) was ranked sixth in the nation and I hadn’t been nationally ranked, so I was scared going into the match,” Salazar said. “I knew if I’d just go out there and stick with my technique, I’d be good.”
This is new territory for Salazar, a senior who last year wrestled at 114 and reached the state quarterfinals. She feels she’s close to where she needs to be to equal last year’s success at 107.
“I was really light for 114 so I wanted to drop down to 107 and I feel these girls are really good competition,” Salazar said. “We haven’t had any home duals or anything like that at Caprock so to come in her and get a really big win like that means a lot, especially since so many girls on the team are new. I feel I should work on my technique more and find my strong points.”
While Salazar is a proven commodity, the two girls who won at the highest weights are genuine champions. Randall’s Emma Heaton (winner at 185) and Borger’s Ariana Chavez (235) are defending state champions who have both wrestled like it this season, and their finals opponents both discovered it the hard way.
“I watched (Ramirez’s) matches like I always do with an opponent and after I got a (technical fall) in the semifinals I still got nerves, but I respect my opponent,” Heaton said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match. I got a takedown, and honestly, I didn’t know it was going to be over with that quick.”
While the season has been literally perfect for Heaton, at least record-wise, defending a state championship looks like an uncertainty. She won state last year at 165, but went up a weight this year, so she might not technically go to the state meet as a “defending” champion at her weight.
Yet, Heaton has managed to adapt.
“I’m probably still trying to go down but I definitely wasn’t planning to go 185,” Heaton said. “I’m doing pretty good. I was intimidated by the size because I was going up 20 pounds. The girls definitely feel a lot stronger, and I can feel the weight, but now I’m good.”
For Chavez, it comes down to what happens when on the mat as soon as the whistle blows.
“I don’t really think about what I’m doing when I’m wrestling because it stresses me out,” Chavez said. “I want to improve a lot more on my speed and my footwork. I try not to let (being a defending state champion) intimidate me, because if I think about it, it gives me anxiety. I try to think I’m on the same level as everybody, but I’m trying to beat them.”
Dumas had a pair of runner-up finishes. At 114, Kennedi Purcell lost a 14-0 major decision to Henrietta’s Dalilah Coyle.
The most interesting match of the final round might have been at 126, when Elaina Morgan of Dumas fell behind Joy Jackson of El Paso Burges and ended up losing 7-6. Morgan had control of Jackson in the last 15 seconds but couldn’t quite pin her as time ran out and had to settle for second.