After four years of standout performances on several teams, Santa Rita High School senior Candice Pocase is headed to Gilbert to compete in the state wrestling meet.
Pocase, 17, went 5-0 during the shortened season. She declared it a success, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am of course nervous, but I am also really excited,” Pocase said of the trip to state. “I want to go big or go home.”
Pocase has played for Santa Rita’s football, cross country, track and field and volleyball teams during her four years at the school. She wrestled last year before suffering a concussion in a match.
Pocase wasn’t diagnosed until months after the match. She was placed on a strict recovery protocol for several months, which included no workouts or running.
Pocase, a state meet qualifier in pole vault her freshman and sophomore years, recovered in time for an abridged cross country season.
After wrestling was given the all-clear to begin following some back-and-forth by the Arizona Interscholastic Association as to whether winter sports would proceed, Pocase was ready to go. But there was more hurdle to overcome: “My coach left, sadly, but I got a new coach who used to teach at Sunnyside,” Pocase told the Star in an email.
“Coach (Richard) Sanchez worked with me and has helped me get more comfortable with my technique. I’ve also had really good teammates who helped me gain confidence along the way”
Pocase, who competed in the state wrestling meet her sophomore year but was eliminated in the second round, is one of a handful of Southern Arizona high school girls making the trip to Gilbert’s Mesquite High School. Other locals include Sierra Vista Buena’s Kailey Moyer, Canyon del Oro’s Mylei Seigla, Rincon/University’s Will Kleiner and Marana’s Molly Proper.
Also making the trip is Sunnyside freshman Audrey Jimenez, who went 4-0 during her first season on the high school circuit.
Jimenez, 15, won a gold medal for her weight class in the 2019 U15 Pan American women’s freestyle championships in Panama. She wrestled a handful of times in 2020, leading up to her February gold medal bout in Mesa during USA Wrestling national qualifiers, and recently traveled to Nebraska to compete in a FloWrestling mega-event.
