In its third year, Corona High’s Queen of the Hill girls wrestling tournament swelled to the point that it outgrew the Panthers’ gymnasium and was expanded from a single-day format to a two-day affair.
But at Wednesday’s finals at La Sierra University in Riverside, the Panthers showed that, no matter the venue, they are too big for the room.
Among a field of several hundred wrestlers from several dozen schools, including last year’s fourth- and sixth-place state finishers Riverside Hillcrest and San Diego Rancho Buena Vista, Corona dominated the championship round with eight finalists.
Six of them brought home titles to deliver a landslide victory for the Panthers, whose 302 points easily outdistanced runner-up Long Beach Millikan (178). The Panthers placed a meet-best 11 wrestlers.
“We weren’t at full force, but my girls that were in, they pulled it out and they placed, so I was very happy with our performance,” said Corona coach Jim Bowers, who got titles from Marissa Ritchie (101 pounds), Shandrea Shelby (106), Sugey Ceja (111), Alyssa Aceval (121), Crystal Carrillo (160) and Christie Sandez (170).
Hillcrest, which narrowly won the team title last year, finished fourth with 162 points – just two back of third-place Walnut – on the strength of eight placers, three finalists and one title won by Destiney Cunningham (150).
Riverside La Sierra finshed sixth with six placers and 126 points, and Beaumont was 10th with four placers and 81 points.
Corona’s lower weight wrestlers opened the finals by winning the first three titles via decision by a combined margin of 26-3. Ritchie turned it on in the third period against Rancho Buena Vista’s Trinity Oredina to rack up five points toward a 10-2 win and Shelby followed with a 7-0 shutout of El Monte’s Briana Penunuri.
“It’s nice (to win) because we didn’t win it last year,” Shelby said. “We wanted to take home the gold this time.”
Ceja followed with a 9-1 defeat of La Sierra’s Valerie DeCastro, in which she scored a reversal and a two-point near fall to pad her lead in the closing seconds.
Rancho Buena Vista’s Iesha Washington halted the Panthers’ parade by pinning Corona’s Salma Ramos at 116 in the first period, but Aceval came right back at 121 to deliver a 7-1 win against an overmatched Mia Dow of Walnut.
“A lot of people are being conservative with us because we attack and they don’t want to get pinned,” Bowers said. “Nobody wants to take risks because they are afraid we’re going to catch them.”
Cunningham looked sharp in her win over Beaumont’s Myriya Ramirez, scoring an opening takedown and twice getting a three-point near fall in the first period before finishing it via pin midway through the second.
The pins would come for Corona later in the finals, beginning with Carrillo sticking Millikan’s Sofia Perez to the mat at the 1:32 mark of the second period after an even first round that ended with the score tied at 4.
Bowers said Sandez has been on a mission since missing last year’s state meet by one match. She hasn’t lost since, and improved to 22-0 this season with a first-period pin of Hillcrest’s Peyton Jackson.
Paloma Valley’s Jaleela Caulk defeated Corona’s Trayawna Lux to capture the 235-pound title. Hillcrest’s Melissa Lopez was pinned near the end of the first period in the 189 title match.
Courtesy of: The Press Enterprise