Coming off the mat after winning his third match of the day, senior Tristan Rodriguez embraced his coaches and teammates. The four-time district champion made school history on Jan. 31, as the first boy in the program to have four championship titles.
Rodriguez finished first in the 157-pound weight class, and advanced to compete in the Regional Meet at the Legends Event Center.
“I would say just the mindset, just going in there to fight, and coming out on top,” Rodriguez said. “It was honestly a life or death situation. That’s kind of the scenario you got to put yourself in.”
Rodriguez was among a large contingent region qualifiers for the boys team. In addition to Rodriguez, senior Elijah Lester and sophomore Marco Plascenia Carmona both finished the meet with a championship in their respective weight classes.
Plascencia Carmona competed in the 150-pound weight class. Lester competed in the 190-pound weight class and earned his first gold as a varsity wrestler.
“It was thrilling,” Lester said. “It felt like I finally scratched the itch that I’ve been trying to reach for a long time.”
Along with the three championships, the boys team had nine others advance – freshman Aydan Tamez (2nd), junior Jerrick Peterson (2nd), freshman Jack Wardlow (4th), sophomore Joby Guzman (4th), sophomore Anthony Deburra (4th), junior Desmond Smoko (4th), junior Rayden DeSouza (5th) and freshman James Clifton (5th).
The boys team finished first overall with a score of 201.0, while the girls team finished third overall with a score of 106.0.
Senior Jahmiya Brown also qualified for the region meet, finishing second in the 135-pound weight class.
“My biggest challenge was definitely my championship match because we both kind of wrestle the same, like the same style of wrestling,” Brown said. “So it’s pretty hard to beat, but I like the challenge.”
Brown lost the match against Westbrook wrestler Addison Anderson in a fall after nearly 3 minutes of competition.
The girls team had six other region qualifiers – sophomore Aaliayh Castillo (1st), freshman Layla Alzubi (2nd), sophomore Ivy Ward (2nd), freshman Nicole Padilla (4th), freshman Jada Garcia (4th) and freshman Danika Hernandez (4th).
Wrestlers now shift their focus to the Region Meet, which runs from Feb. 4-6.
Rodriguez has especially big goals this weekend. After dealing with injuries during the Region Meet last season, Rodriguez said his focus is on placing higher in hopes of eventually making it to the State Meet.
“(I want) to do the best that I can,” Rodriguez said. “To make my teammates proud, my parents. It’s been a four-year fight, pretty much, to kind of get to my goals. To get on that kind of board and where my name could be a part of history, part of KPark history.”
