The Ladies are the Champs! Tiger wrestlers dominate their first WYL meet

On Saturday, in the first “official” WYL girls’ wrestling tournament, the Lady Tigers also capped a perfect 6-0 season with a convincing win in the WYL Tournament at Redwood High School. The Lemoore girls dominated the event and will send all 12 girls to the CIF Valley Tournament on Feb. 15 and 16 at Lemoore High School.

The tournament starts at 1 p.m. both days and will be held in the school’s Event Center.

“These girls – the entire year – made sure they wanted to start their own winning tradition,” said Tiger Coach Armando Calderon, a long-time assistant to boys’ coach, Marcio Botelho, and the Lady Tigers’ first head coach.

The CIF Valley Tournament will send the top two athletes in each weight class to the State Tournament at the Visalia Convention Center on Feb. 24-25.

Lemoore had five champions at the WYL tournament and scored a team-high 156 points. Golden West finished second with 145 points while Redwood was third with 134 points.

Senior Angelita Sanchez, at 108 pounds won the league title by whipping her opponent with a second period pin, as did Tiger Gracie Clark, at 143 pounds, earning a championship with a second period pin.

Kayla Rodriguez, at 170 pounds, had a first period pin as did Ariel Zingrebi (160), both winning league titles.

Finally, Eunique Barnes (189) won the title with a second period pin.