The seeds at a wrestling tournament are merely a suggestion.

That's because there are times when records are bloated by weak schedules, and other records are tampered down by a difficult matches throughout the year.

It can mean the kid with the lower winning percentage, but tougher battle scars is ready to compete with the state tournament berth on the line, while the wrestler with the shiny, pretty record isn’t always sharpened by competition and struggles when it gets down to the nitty gritty.

“This is the time of the year when a tougher schedule pays dividends,” Desert Vista coach David Gonzalez said. “I’ll take a kid with 10 loses against really good competition over someone with 30 wins but barely wrestled anyone of consequence.”

It was all on display at the Division I, Section II boys sectional tournament Saturday at Desert Vista.

With that said, those top seeds usually find a way to the podium at the end of all the tournament when the chaos is over and the wrestlers have received their medals.

And then there was 138-pound weight class that saw the first and second seeds lose in the semifinals, and only one managed to come back in the consolation semifinals to qualify for state.

Gila Ridge’s Owen Beck, a fourth seed, knocked off No. 1 see Cameron Weeks 5-1 in the semifinals and Desert Vista’s Zane Spencer, the No. 4 seed, pinned Red Mountain’s Brody Tilmann, the No. 2 seed, in the semis.

Spencer went on to win it all with a 2-0 win over Beck, but Weeks and Tillmann dropped down to the blood round and only Tilmann survived.

Kofa’s Emmitt Merrill beat Weeks 7-4 to advance to state, while Tilmann was down 8-5 in the third period to Yuma’s Joseph Prieto before securing the pin and a place at the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum next weekend for the state tournament.

Tilmann, who finished third, is a senior and he had never qualified for state. Had he not overcome that third period deficit in the blood round, his career was over.

Instead, he will always be able say he was a state qualifier, and if all goes well next week, possibly a state placer.

“I was scared there,” Tilmann said of the deficit in the consolation semifinals. “It was everything to get that pin – everything I’ve done over the last four years came together. Everything I missed out on because I was training. I knew I had to give everything and whatever the outcome is I have to be satisfied with as long as I gave my all.”

Red Mountain's Brody Tillmann nearly failed to qualified for state his senior year despite being the second seed, but managed to mount a comeback in the consolation semifinals to qualify. (Jason P. Skoda/AZPreps365)

There were other seeds that fell early on and didn’t make it through with 165 being a good example. The top two seeds cruised with pins into the final before No. 1 Silas Vickery of Red Mountain beat No. 2 Gila Ridge’s Logan Lines, 12-6.

The rest of the bracket was pretty volatile as unseeded wrestlers found their way to state.

Mesa’s Angelo Boyd-Ortiz beat fourth-seeded Max Morell of Pinnacle with a pin in the consolation quarterfinals and followed it up with a 7-2 win over third-seeded Jazael Galvan Resendiz in the consolation semifinals.

Heavyweight saw top seed Gerardo Anya lose in the semifinals to Millennium’s Dhacaurie Spencer, who went on to finish second, as the fourth seed, but Anya won 2-1 in the consolation semifinals to advance to state.

As far as advancing competitors to state and winning the team title, Gila Ridge was impressive.

Gila Ridge did the best when it came to finding the podium as it will have 11 wrestlers, including five sectional champions, at state next after finishing with 236.5 team points, while Desert Vista was second with 178.5 and nine qualifiers.

Red Mountain with 154.5 and seven placers, Kofa with 144.5 and seven placers, and Mesa at 106 and five placers rounded out the top five.

Another subtle aside in the tournament is making sure to finish third place rather than fourth.

That way when the seeding for the state tournament comes about this week, the third place competitor is taking on a sectional runner-up while the fourth-place finisher is taking a sectional champion.

“If you finish fourth and then you get the No. 1 seed off the bat,” Mesa coach David DiDomenico said. “At three, you have a two seed and maybe got an upset somewhere along the line. It’s a huge difference. The chance of upsetting a No. 2 is much greater than taking down a No. 1.”

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