STOCKTON – Sierra’s Alexa Garcia brought home the silver medal at 160 pounds on Saturday in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Girls Regional Wrestling Championships at Lincoln High School.
Garcia squared off with Bella Vista of Fair Oaks’ Yelena Makoyed in the championship and was defeated via pin in the second round.
Garcia finished fifth in the 2018 divisional championships and this will be her second consecutive trip to the state championships which will be held for the first time in conjunction with the boys for three days beginning Thursday at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
“I did better than I did last year and I am proud of it,” Garcia said. “A little more work and hopefully next year I can get first.
“It feels great to be going back to state. I am more confident this year.”
Garcia (160) started the day needing just one win to make it to the finals and she got that with a 6-3 decision over Lizah Hingano of Rio Linda.
Sierra’s Camille Jarmon, Ripon’s Katelyn Cardoza and East Union’s Sarah Atkins will join Garcia in Bakersfield.
Jarmon (111) faced Trinity Hernandez of Enochs for third place and never led, but she did put a scare into Hernandez in the third round.
Trailing 8-0 early in the third period and on the bottom, Jarmon reversed Hernandez and then tallied three back points, nearly getting the pin. Hernandez then reversed Jarmon and tallied a near-fall for a 13-5 major-decision win.
“I had it on that reversal,” Jarmon said. “But my hand got stuck and it was all sweaty and I got too high,”
Jarmon pinned her way to the consolation semifinals in 1 minute, 51 seconds over Lodi’s Ezzery Shelley and downed Teresa Serrano of Rodriguez of Fairfield 6-3 in the consolation semifinal.
Cardoza (131) dropped a 5-2 decision in the semifinals to Carla Martinez of Central Valley of Ceres and rebounded with a consolation semifinal pin in 2:51 over Pacheco’s Leonor Del Rio.
“I feel like I accomplished a lot,” Cardoza said. “I am just a freshman and this is my first year of wrestling and I learned so much.
“I came a long ways and you have to have the courage from your heart and your mind and you can accomplish anything you dream of.”
Atkins (137) pinned Ripon’s Melissa Perez in 1:45 to reach the consolation semifinals where she was pinned in the second round, sending her to the fifth-place match. Atkins’ opponent then defaulted so Atkins finished fifth.
A junior, Atkins injured her shoulder early in her freshman year and since then has had three surgeries between her two shoulders, returning to action this January.
“Coming back from a two-year injury was hard,” Atkins said. “I came back in January, I didn’t get seeded at Sections, I took eighth and came here to face the No. 1 seed in my first match.
“I lost to her, battled all the way back and placed fifth.”
The Top 6 advance to the three-day CIF Boys/Girls State Championships on Thursday in Bakersfield. The following girls finished a match away from qualifying: Ripon’s Marissa Hernandez (106, seventh); Melissa Perez (137, seventh); Ashley Espinoza (126, eighth); and Sierra’s Citali Chavez (170, eighth).
