Rams win 1, lose 1 in triangular meet

Maricopa High School wrestlers Sky Murcek, Jacob Lara and Shakeil Becker each won both of their matches Wednesday as the Rams split a triangular meet against San Tan Valley Combs and Gilbert Campo Verde.

Lara and Becker pinned their opponents in the Rams’ 42-36 victory over host Combs. Lara, a 130-pound sophomore, won by fall against Combs’ Doug Osborne. Becker, a 145-pound senior, pinned the Coyotes’ Garrett Ruiz.

Murcek, a 103-pound freshman, earned an 8-2 decision over Combs’ Brandon Ortega.

Also winning for Maricopa in the meet against Combs were Collin Blackburn (12-10 decision over Jacob Perez at 112 pounds), Kyle Kingery (pin against Sean McGiven at 189), Sean Dodge (pin against Juan Ramirez at 215), Walter Ibarra (forfeit at 160) and Joey Kelly (forfeit at 171).

The Rams had just nine wrestlers available for the meet and were able to defeat the Coyotes despite losing five weight classes by forfeit.

The forfeited weight classes proved to be costly for the Rams in their 56-13 loss against Campo Verde.

The Campo Verde Coyotes, who fielded a lineup of 13 wrestlers, received 24 points via forfeit, and they won six of the nine contested matches.

“Campo Verde is very competitive,” Maricopa coach Conroy Bowman said.

Murcek, Lara and Becker won their matches for Maricopa. Becker pinned Campo Verde’s Mohammed Mousa, while Murcek earned a 9-0 major decision over Bakir Mousa. Lara won a 12-8 decision over Gabe McInnis.

Bowman also was encouraged by Kingery’s match against Campo Verde’s Alex Buppert. While Kingery lost a 5-4 decision, he was able to go the distance against an opponent who had pinned him earlier in the season.

“Kyle has shown a lot of growth,” Bowman said.

Kingery, a sophomore, won the 189-pound weight class at last weekend’s Coolidge Invitational, as he helped to lead the Rams to a fourth-place finish in the 16-team tournament.

Kingery pinned Chance Stone of Queen Creek San Tan Foothills in the 189-pound championship match, avenging a loss against Stone from earlier in the tournament.

“It was nice to see him bounce right back from that,” Bowman said.

Kingery was one of seven Maricopa wrestlers who placed in the top six of their weight classes at the Coolidge Invitational last weekend. Lara finished second at 130 pounds, while Becker (145), Kelly (171) and Dodge (215) each placed third. Murcek finished fifth at 103, and Adolfo Franco placed sixth at 140.

The two-day Coolidge Invitational began with a dual-meet competition in which the 16 teams were divided into two pools of eight teams each.

Maricopa won six of seven duals in the Blue Pool, losing to Laveen Cesar Chavez and defeating Tucson Catalina Foothills, Casa Grande Vista Grande, Chandler Valley Christian, San Manuel, Florence Poston Butte and Queen Creek San Tan Foothills.

As the second-place finisher in the Blue Pool, the Rams wrestled against Red Pool runner-up Casa Grande to determine third place overall. Casa Grande prevailed 42-31 to finish third in the tournament. Maricopa ended as the fourth-place finisher.

Following the dual-meet portion of the tournament, the wrestlers with the best records in each weight class were seeded for an individual competition. The third-place finishers from the two pools squared off to determine overall fifth and sixth place in each weight class. The top two finishers in each pool were seeded in four-man brackets to determine first through fourth place in each weight class.

“We really had a chance to display a lot of the growth we have gone through lately,” Bowman said.

Additionally, the Rams were awarded the tournament’s Sportsmanship Trophy.

“It was for showing sportsmanship throughout the entire tournament,” Bowman said. “One thing that assisted with that is we didn’t have a wrestler at 152 pounds, so we were getting a forfeit. We had a Globe High School wrestler, Tristan Burgett, in that spot who was wrestling exhibition. We decided to include the Globe kid in our rotation and make him part of the team for the duration. Our guys were rooting him on.”

Winning the trophy for sportsmanship capped a productive tournament for the Rams.

“I am more proud of the Sportsmanship Award than the actual placing,” Bowman said. “That shows how mature our athletes are, and that just makes me beam with pride.”