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Three place in freestyle state tourney
WRES--Freestyle-State-pic-LT
Area girls wrestling standouts Alyssa Cantu and Jasmine Ivey show off their trophies earned in the California USA Freestyle State Championships on Sunday. - photo by Photo Contributed

Jasmine Ivey and Alyssa Cantu are still collecting hardware in their already-decorated senior campaigns.

The area’s top female grapplers competed in the California USA Freestyle State Championships in Fresno on Sunday, and both qualified for the ASICA/Vaughan Junior National Championships. Also wrestling at Selland Arena this weekend was Lathrop High junior Alex Garcia, who earned a sixth-place medal.

Ivey, also of Lathrop, more than held her own in winning the 148-pound title. Last month, she placed fifth at 139 during the USA Wrestling Girls Folkstyle Junior Nationals in Oklahoma City.

A two-time third-place finisher in the CIF State Championships, Ivey coasted to her California freestyle title following a first-round bye. She then pinned Nicki Sue Wegrzyn in 1 minute, 56 seconds, and in the finals she stopped Union City’s Vanessa Tria via technical fall.

Cantu (172), a CIF state runner-up out of Weston Ranch, had another second-place run that included a notable win over Santa Maria-based standout Courteney Tompkins. Cantu pinned her in 1:15 in their rematch from the folkstyle national tournament, where Tompkins prevailed with a third-period fall. Tompkins is the reigning CIF champion at 170, while Cantu — the Manteca Bulletin All-Area Girls Wrestler of the Year — took second at 189.

Cantu was stuck with 3 seconds left in the championship match with Leili Lemmons, who took second to Tompkins in the CIF tournament.

Garcia had a busy Saturday and went 4-3 while competing at 126 pounds — two divisions higher than his weight during the high school season. Following two technical-fall victories, he was outpointed by eventual third-place finisher Abbas Khan 6-2 in the winner’s bracket quarterfinals. Richard Casillas edged out Garcia 17-16 in a shootout for sixth place.

The freestyle nationals is scheduled for July 19-26 in Fargo, N.D.