CIF girls wrestling takes spotlight

The San Diego Section’s ex­panded girls wrestling cham­pionship tournaments drew quite a crowd last Saturday to the three competition sites: Rancho Bernardo High School (19 teams, Division I), Santana High School (26 teams, Division II) and Lincoln High School (27 teams, Division III).

That’s a total of 72 teams and 42 individual weight class champions – four from Gross­mont Conference schools with 12 finalists, including eight runner-up.

Steele Canyon carried the torch at the Division I tourna­ment with a fourth-place finish with 157 points while Granite Hills finished seventh with 79 points and Helix 15th (27 points).

Santana topped the five East County entrants in the Divi­sion II field with a third-place team finish with 124.5 points while Grossmont finished in eighth place with 67 points, El Capitan finished 11th with 50.5 points, Valhalla finished 14th with 39.5 points and El Cajon Valley finished 16th with 28 points.

Six East County teams were entered in the Division III field with West Hills placing fifth with 117 points, Monte Vista placing ninth with 71 points, Liberty Charter placing 17th with 36 points, Mountain Empire in 19th place with 26 points and Mt. Miguel in 22nd place with 11 points.

The top four place-winners in each divisional qualified for the upcoming San Diego Sec­tion Masters state-qualifying tournament.

Masters qualifiers from the Division I finals included Steele Canyon’s Kayala Hop­kins (second, 135 pounds) and Marina Gonzalez (second, 155 pounds), Reika Proctor (third, 105 pounds), Monserrat Bau­tista (third, 170 pounds), An­gelica Murguia (third, 190 pounds) and Izabelle Vazquez (third, 235 pounds), and Gran­ite Hills’ Lucia Ledezma (sec­ond, 140 pounds), Jayselle Sue­tos (fourth, 105 pounds) and Liliana Porfirio (fourth, 235 pounds).

Masters qualifiers from the Division II finals included San­tana’s Sierra Fahn (first, 110 pounds), Amber Spencer (first, 145 pounds), Myree Pacheco (second, 190 pounds) and Rachel Taylor (fourth, 155 pounds), El Cajon Valley’s Lilieanna Chunn (first, 130 pounds), El Capitan’s Anna Armenta (second, 120 pounds), Grossmont’s Makyra Redmond (third, 155 pounds) and Grace Parent (fourth, 145 pounds) and Valhalla’s Rozan Saber (fourth, 120 pounds).

The Lady Sultans cleaned up on the mat with two individual champions, three finalists and four Masters qualifiers.

Masters qualifiers from the Division III tournament includ­ed Monte Vista’s Katana Ortiz (first, 110 pounds) and Alexa Malinis (second, 100 pounds), West Hills’ Gizelle Fort (sec­ond, 120 pounds), Matilda Wilson (second, 135 pounds), Sophia Pomales (third, 115 pounds), Jasmine Haase (third, 130 pounds), Athena Romensas (fourth, 140 pounds), Liberty Charter’s Ella Godby (third, 190 pounds) and Isabella Luzzi (fourth, 145 pounds), and Mountain Empire’s Delayna Mallon (fourth, 100 pounds).

East County notched four fi­nalists.

Olympian claimed the team title in Division I — the Lady Eagles’ fifth CIF crown — with 228 points. Poway was a close second with 218.5 points.

Brawley captured the Divi­sion II team championship with a dominating 265.5 points, fol­lowed by Central Union in sec­ond place with 173 points.

Ramona won the team title among Division III schools with 243 points, followed by Impe­rial in second place with 140.5 points and Holtville in third place with 137 points.

Twelve girls will compete in each weight class at the Mas­ters tournament Feb. 21-22 at Christian High School in El Ca­jon alongside the boys field.

The four boys divisional championships are Saturday, Feb. 15: Division I (Olympian High School), Division II (Or­ange Glen High School), Divi­sion III (Ramona High School) and Division IV (Mar Vista High School).

The top three placers from the girls Masters tournament advance to the state meet in Bakersfield.