On Feb. 21, senior Bulldog Michael Romero would go up against three wrestlers, earning three pins. The first would be Hendrix Siqueiros of Yuma Catholic, where he would get the pin at 1:56 mark. In the quarterfinal he would pin Talin John at the 1:27 mark. He would then pin Jose Diaz at the 5:57 mark in the semi-finals.
On Feb. 22, Romero would face the No. 1 overall seed Luke Grainger of Miami. Romero would start off aggressive and quickly earn a take-down point and then using his fantastic strength to neutralize Grainger’s speed, Romero would then lock him in a finishing move to pin Grainger at the 57 second mark, to capture the gold medal and finish his wrestling career with the title of Division IV Champion in the 144-pound weight class.
Romero also holds two WHS wrestling records, with 189 career wins and 59 season wins.
On Feb. 21, Lady Bulldog McKenna Hardy in the 138-pound class, fought back hard after losing her first round in overtime. She would bounce back and win her next two matches and would advance her into action on Feb. 22.
Hardy would start day two with an impressive win in the morning over Karlie Schneider of Sahuaro, which would guarantee her at least a top six finish and medal. Her next opponent would scratch, moving her into third place bout. It would be a rematch of her first match, where she would again face Odie of Thunderbird. In the first round neither would score a point and unfortunately in an effort to prevent a reversal, Hardy would suffer an injury and be unable to continue and default to the fourth place finish, which considering that this is Hardy’s first year wrestling not a bad finish for the season.
