3 Sand Devils take the podium at state championships

Whitewater and Gracia crowned champs, Penrod places fourth.

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The Sand Devils wrestling team will be adding new names to its Wall of Fame after last weekend’s successful trip to the state finals.


It was a confident Sand Devils wrestling team that walked into the Prescott Valley Event Center arena last Friday.


“This year our mantra was confidence,” said head wrestling coach Kyran Keisling. “Confidence bordering on cockiness. Expect to succeed. Expect to win. At everything, not just wrestling.”


Eleven of the Sand Devils 14 wrestlers qualified for state, and three of them made it to the podium. Senior Kamron Whitewater was crowned state champion, as was junior Hayden Gracia. Senior Christian Penrod placed fourth.


Whitewater, Penrod and Gracia have been wrestling together for the last 14 years. All three of them started wrestling as Dust Devils the same year. Whitewater and Penrod were four years old at the time, Gracia was only three.


“Normally you have to be four years old to start Dust Devils,” said Gracia, “but my mom talked them into letting me start a year early.”


The “them” Gracia is referring to are coaches Kyran Keisling and Matt Penrod, who, in addition to coaching high school wrestling, also coach the Dust Devils a wrestling program for kids as young as four years old.


“Christian and I have been wrestling partners ever since that first year,” said Gracia. “We got better together.”


As a team the Sand Devils finished in sixth place, with 103.5 points. Ten of their 11 wrestlers advanced into the second day of wrestling.


“This is the hardest state championships, filled with some of the most talented wrestlers, I think I’ve ever seen” said Keisling.


Kamron Whitewater, wrestling in the 106-pound weight category, reached the championship round with three straight pins.


During the championship round he dominated his opponent from the first whistle, racking up point after point, eventually winning the match by tech fall, which occurs when a wrestler has gained a 15-point advantage over his opponent.  

Whitewater has been wrestling since he was four years old. He started his wrestling career as a Dust Devil training with coaches Kyran Keisling and Matt Penrod.


“They’ve been my coaches the entire time I’ve been wrestling,” said Whitewater. “They’ve been telling me all season that I was going to take [the championship] this year. But, there were times when I wasn’t sure I could do it. It helped my confidence a lot that they never stopped believing in me.”


Whitewater has wrestled in the 106-pound weight category his entire high school career. He’s wrestled on varsity since his freshman year.


“The last two years it has been a challenge to keep my weight at 106-pound level,” he said. “I have to stay dedicated to it.”


Now that he’s finished wrestling he says one of the things he’s looking forward to is not having to make weight.


“If I want to have an extra sandwich, I’m going to have an extra sandwich,” he said.


Whitewater has had a very impressive varsity career.  His season record this year was 49-1, the most season wins of any Sand Devil.  He placed third in state last year, and fifth at state his sophomore year. He’s a Doc Wright Champion, a Sand Devils Classic champion and a two-time Cujo Award winner, for best lightweight wrestler.


All told his name will appear on the Sand Devils’ Wall of Fame seven times.


Coach Keisling wasn’t one bit surprised with Whitewater’s championship. “He won because of the work he puts in,” he said “I came into the season knowing he was going to take state.


“I don’t know that he made a mistake all season. He’s a technical wrestler. He knows every move we coach in our room, and he learns more from watching college and tech videos.”


Christian Penrod, wrestling in the 138-pound category, placed fourth in the state championship tournament. He’s a senior, the son of Sand Devils’ assistant wresting coach Matt Penrod, and the nephew of head coach Kyran Keisling. Like Whitewater and Gracia, he’s been wrestling since he was a Dust Devil, training with his father and uncle.


Penrod’s state tournament couldn’t have started better. On the tournament’s opening day, Penrod won his first two rounds, both from first-period pins. He knew he had his work cut out for him in the third round when he faced the no. 1 seed, who had a 55-0 season record. He lost that match which bumped him down into the consolation bracket. Penrod emerged with the victory in the next round which put him in a position to compete for third and fourth place in the final match of his wrestling career. He finished fourth after being pinned.


“That was a match I could have won,” he said. “I was in a position to do it.”


Penrod was in a dominant position over his opponent when “I tried a roll, but executed it wrong and it screwed me up,” he said. “He’s a good wrestler and when I missed my move he saw his opening.


“When the match was over I just rolled over and looked at my coaches and we all laughed. All three of us knew it was a funny way to go out.”


It’s a strange feeling knowing he’s wrestled his last official match, Penrod said.


“I’ve been wrestling since I was four,” he said. “It was always a big part of my life, especially with my dad and uncle as my coaches.”


The big lessons he learned from a lifetime of wrestling that he’ll carry into adulthood are perseverance and responsibility.


“There are times when wrestling is a hard sport to remember that it’s supposed to be fun,” Penrod said. “There have been times when I was done with it. But you stick with it and you win a match and you get your hand raised. That’s what keeps you going.”


Hayden Gracia, a junior wrestling in the 145-pound weight category, was the final Sand Devil to compete in the state championships.


Gracia is the latest in a long line of Gracia wrestlers to come through Page High School. His older brother Dante was runner-up at the state finals last year and his brother Sean was the last Sand Devil to win a state championship back in 2009 (Sean also took state in 2008, and was runner up in 2007 and 2010).


Gracia entered the state tournament with a season record on seven wins and four losses. He entered the season in early January due to an eligibility issue that kept him off the mats for the first half of the season.


“I was having a hard time getting my grades up,” Gracia said. “Finally my mom and [coaches] Keisling and Penrod told me to get it together.”


“On the way home my mom and I were joking that I probably broke the record for having the worst record goin

g into state,” Gracia joked. “After I won the state championship I had people come up to me and said, `Who are you?’ I wasn’t on anyone’s radar.”


Gracia advanced to the championship with a pin in the first round, a 19-8 major decision, and a 9-2 decision in the semi-finals against the no. 2 seed.
He won his championship match when he pinned his opponent with 1:09 left in the third period. During the match there were several occasions when his opponent appeared to have the upper hand, but Gracia would twist and spin and find his way out of it, which earned him points for an escape.


“In the wrestling room we call him the groundflower,” said Coach Keisling. “You know those fireworks that spin and bounce really fast on the ground. That’s what Hayden’s like. His matches are hard to score because he moves so much and so fast. He’s risky. He gambles. He puts himself in a position that’s seems to be in his opponent’s advantage and then the next thing you know he’s out of it and back on top.”


Gracia said he’s never felt more confident and at ease as he did at last weekend’s competition.


“lt was kind of weird,” he said. “I usually feel pretty nervous before a match, but this time I had no nerves going into my matches. I’d call my brother Sean before each match and he told me, `Don’t be nervous, just go rip that guy’s head off.’ I guess it worked.”


Coach Keisling said he was very proud to see Gracia return after his early season absence.


“We knew Hayden could get [to the championship round],” said Coach Keisling. “We all know what a great wrestler he is, but everyone else in this entire gym was thinking, `Who is this guy?’”


It felt surreal to wake up Sunday morning a state wrestling champion, Gracia said.


“I felt like I should be waking up on the bus on the way there,” he said. “Like I still had to cut weight and still had to wrestle all those matches. It’s still kind of sinking in.”


At the end of the tournament Coach Keisling admitted he was disappointed that his talented team of wrestlers didn’t progress deeper into the tournament than they did, but that feeling was eclipsed by the knowledge that two of his wrestlers had just taken the championship, while another had placed fourth.
“It’s just a monkey off my back,” he said. “I’ve had several wrestlers get real close to championships in recent years but to finally seal the deal, and to do it twice, feels pretty good.


And what do Whitewater and Gracia get for their championships? Eternal bragging rights, and their name on The Wall.


The Wall is just a board that hangs in the high school wrestling room, but it lists such accomplishments as which wrestlers through the years have taken state or runner-up, or who has the most wins in the season.


“Having your name on the wall is a really big deal,” said Coach Keisling. That’s our greatest legacy as Sand Devils wrestlers. Once your name is on there, it’s on there forever. I have a picture of The Wall. If the school ever burns down the first thing I’ll do is make a new board and hang it back up.”