Granite Hills senior Erica Torres defeated Yucca Valley’s Trinity Plessinger to win the 118-pound title at the CIF Southern California Girls Regional at Channel Islands High School on Saturday. (Recorder photo by Chieko Hara)
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Girls wrestling tourney growing
The Daily Herald 1/23/07
It's a breakthrough season for girls wrestling in the state of Washington.
After offering an exhibition girls wrestling tournament since 2004, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association will hold its first official girls state tourney Feb. 16-17 during Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome.
Girls qualify for state by advancing through sub-regional and regional tournaments scheduled for various sites on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, respectively.
Participation is on the rise. Last season's exhibition in Tacoma featured 156 girls, an event record, from about 80 teams. This winter about 375 girls from 125 schools are wrestling, according to the WIAA.
Local competitors like Tara Miller and Kellie Meakins of Jackson High School are leading the way.
On Saturday, Miller, a Jackson junior, placed first in the 103-pound girls division at the Jaguar Invitational at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup. She had a pin and won a 7-6 decision in the finals, picking up an outstanding match award for the latter effort.
Meakins, a sophomore, had two pins on Saturday and placed fourth at 125 pounds.
Both girls also performed well on Friday in a girls dual meet, also at Emerald Ridge.
The experience will help Miller and Meakins, who have won varsity matches against boys this season, gear up for qualifying meets, Jackson coach Gustavo Anaya said. "They were able to get to see some kids that they will probably see when the postseason comes along," he said, "so I think that will pay huge dividends."
Another bonus: the girls' achievements could encourage others to try wrestling.
"Other girls at Jackson will see that these two can be successful," Anaya said.
Heavy on heart
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Lassen Wrestling defeats Central Valley
Posted on Tuesday, January 23 @ 10:23:54 PST
Jan. 23, 2007 — The Lassen High School varsity wrestling team won 12 out of 14 matches to defeat the Central Valley Falcons 63-12 on Wed. Jan. 17.
The Grizzlies won seven matches by pinning their opponent, two by forfeit and three by decisions.
Byron Treece started the match by defeating Chance Borba 8-1 in the 103-pound weight class.
At 112’s, Kelley Urionaguena won by a forfeit. Ben Miller won at 119’s by pinning his opponent in the first round.
Mason West defeated Brandon Schmitt in the 125’s by pinning him in the second round of their match.
“We wrestled extremely well,” Coach Rodney Hartrum said.
Taft Memmott won 15-11 in the 130’s defeating Roger Perkins. James Gilstrap of Lassen High School was pinned in the second round by Zeph Foster of Central Valley.
In the 140-pound weight class, Drew Lipton pinned his opponent Kyle Butcher, in the first round, taking the victory. Nick Davis also pinned his opponent in the first round during the match in the 145-pound weight class.
Brad Memmott won by pinning his opponent Logan Stoute in the second during a match in the 152’s.
Sparky Lively was awarded a win by a forfeit during the 160’s match. Daniel Hartrum wrestled in the 171’s and pinned his opponent Josh Dungan in the second round, to take the victory.
Kurtis Hibbits wrestled Cory Fuller in the 189’s with Hibbits taking the victory 9-7. At 215’s, Brent Hatcher was able to pin his opponent Andrew Leedy in the first round for the victory. In the heavyweight division, John McDonald was pinned in the first round.
On the same night, the Junior Varsity team went 4-2, winning three matches by pinning their opponent and won in a decision.
Sonya Lucatero won 10-0 in the 119’s to start the evening for the Junior Varsity team. Drew Schroers pinned his opponent in the second round of the 127’s for the victory. Johnnie Gabel was pinned in the second round of the 137’s.
Daren Lee pinned his opponent in the first round during the 162’s match. Danny DeMers also pinned his opponent in the 171’s, but it was in the second round. At the 217’s, Steaven Alexander was pinned in the first round.
On Friday, Jan. 12 and Saturday, Jan. 13, the girls of the Lassen High School wrestling team traveled to compete in the ASICS Napa Valley Wrestling Girls Classic.
Urionaguena went 3-2 and took 4th place in the 114-pound weight class. Lucatero went 4-2 and finished in 5th place in the 118’s. Gabel went 0-3 in the 138’s and did not place.
“The competition there was very high. The kids wrestled very well and know they can compete with anyone,” Hartrum said.
This past weekend, the Varsity team traveled to Fernley to compete in the Vaquero Classic. The Junior Varsity team traveled to Paradise for a tournament and the girls traveled to Brentwood to compete in the CIF Northern Regionals. Results of the matches were not available at press time.
Their next match is on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at Anderson. The Grizzlies next home match is at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31 against Corning. The Northern Athletic League, League Finals will be held in Corning on Friday, Feb. 9. The Division Championships will be held on Saturday, Feb. 17 and the NSCIF Finals will be held on Saturday, Feb. 24 in Redding.
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Granite Hills' Torres wins SoCal girls regional
By The Porterville Recorder Staff 1/23/07
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Granite Hills senior Erica Torres defeated Yucca Valley’s Trinity Plessinger to win the 118-pound title at the CIF Southern California Girls Regional at Channel Islands High School on Saturday. (Recorder photo by Chieko Hara) |
OXNARD - Erica Torres avenged a loss one year in the making.
After cruising through her first three matches, the Granite Hills senior found herself facing Yucca Valley's Trinity Plessinger. Plessinger, last year at the Southern California Girls Regional, beat Torres.
Torres got her revenge at the 2006 California Girls Invitational Tournament and she added the icing on the cake at this year's SoCal regional at Channel Islands High School.
Torres scored a takedown on the edge of the mat in overtime to upend Plessinger again, 12-10, and capture the 118-pound division championship on Saturday night.
“The lead changed hands about four times,” Granite Hills coach Marty Kouyoumtjian said. “You couldn't ask for more exciting match. We came out on the better end of it. It was a big win. That's who beat her last year when she was trying to win CIF. It was a real sweet victory for (Torres).”
Torres led the match throughout. She was up 7-4 in the third period when Plessinger scored four points to take an 8-7 lead with 1 minute, 11 seconds left. Torres had to take half of injury time after falling behind. But once she gathered herself, Torres went ahead 10-8 on a reversal and one-point technical violation (locking hands) but Plessinger regrouped to score a reversal with 10 seconds in the third period.
“(Plessinger's) the defending national runner-up at that weight class,” Kouyoumtjian said. “We knew it was going to be a tough match. I think it was something (Torres) really wanted to win. CIF recognizes it at as an official tournnament.
“When we go to Michigan, it gives us a lot of leverage in the national seeding.”
Now Torres and Kouyoumtjian have a decision to make. Does she wrestle at the CIF Invitational again at Hanford West in February or does she wait and wrestle at USA Wrestling Folkstyle state championships on March 9 in San Jose?
“We can't afford to do everything,” Kouyoumtjian said. “We have to pick and choose where we go.”
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1/23/07
There were three Central Coast Section champions at Saturday's Northern California Girls Regional Wrestling Tournament in Brentwood.
Oak Grove's Michelle Jimenez won at 108 pounds, as did Santa Teresa's Alexsandra Sanchez (132) and Terra Nova's Marina Piccolotti (146).
Second-place finishes went to Moriah Fernandez of Live Oak (138) and Rebeckah Joshua of Half Moon Bay (122). Cindy Pacheco of Oak Grove finished third at 98.
The CIF doesn't sponsor a girls state tournament, but an unofficial competition -- the California Girls Invitational Tournament -- will feature the top performers from the Southern and Northern California regionals. The tournament will be Friday and Saturday at Hanford West High School.
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By : H. J. Morrison : 1/23/07
This week’s Athlete of the Week is Chelsea Grasseschi a senior at Castro Valley High.
This week Grasseschi, a co-captain on the Trojans girl’s wrestling team, took third in the 132-pound division at the CIF North Regional girl’s wrestling tournament.
As the 6th seeded wrestler in California she defeated the 3rd and 4th seeds before losing to the number one rated girl in the state in the semi-finals.
Her overall record for the year is 25-8.
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Wrestling Trials on January 28
New Delhi, Jan 22:
The Wrestling Federation of India will conduct a selection trial on Sunday for national and international medal winners between 2004-2006 to pick team for three upcoming events.
The trials will be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium where men and women grapplers will be selected for three international events to be held in March, a WFI press release said here today.
The events are Golden Grand Prix International Tournament, 'Cup of Independence of Uzbekistan, which will be held at Tashkent from March 1 to 4 while Klippan Lady Open International tournament which will be held in Sweden from March 2 to 4.
A two-day free-style Tournament 'Ibrahim Moustafa' in which will be held at Port Said, Egypt beginning on March 27.