Grappling girls get their day at inaugural state finals

By Jason Maholy
Sports Editor

The last weekend of February 2022 was an historic one for Illinois high school athletics, as female grapplers from across the Prairie State converged on Bloomington for the inaugural IHSA girls wrestling state finals.

The state finals were held Feb. 25 and 26 at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington. The tournament featured 224 wrestlers in 14 weight classes between 100 and 235 pounds.

Morton made its presence felt at tournament, with the Mustangs’ nine wrestlers the most among the 122 programs represented at the event. Homewood-Flossmoor fielded eight wrestlers, and Oak Park-River Forest and the Andrew Co-op — the latter which featured athletes from District 230 schools Andrew, Sandburg and Stagg — sent six apiece.

Aside from fielding the largest contingent of wrestlers from one program, Morton’s four medalists, led by runner-up Diana Rodriguez, were tied for the most with Peoria Richwoods.

Rodriguez, a senior, took second place at 190 pounds. Jennifer Villagomez (110) and Karla Topete (130) both finished fifth, and Leilany De Leon (120) finished sixth.

Rodriguez (15-5) pinned her first opponent, Ruby Sepeda of Moline, in 1:26 before toughing out a 5-4 decision over Noelia Vazquez (27-2) of Fenton in the quarterfinals. It was only the second loss of the season for Vazquez, who finished third.

Rodriguez then made short work of West Aurora’s Brittney Moran in the semifinals, pinning the freshman in 53 seconds. Her hopes for a state title ended with a tech fall to Jayden Huesca-Rodriguez in the championship match.

Villagomez (18-3), a senior, bounced back from a first-round fall to Evelyn Simon of Hoffman Estates to win her next three matches. A 5-3 loss to Burlington Central’s Victoria Macias in the consolation semifinals sent her to the fifth-place match, but she again rebounded, ending her tourney by pinning Amy Villegas of Maine East in 3:18.

Topete (18-3), who entered the state tournament with only one loss, pinned her first opponent in 1:53 before losing in the quarterfinals. Two more wins and a loss later the senior was in the fifth-place match, where she ended her season on a winning note by beating Katie Ramirez-Quintero of Bolingbrook, 6-3.

De Leon (13-5), a junior, went 3-3 at state. She ended her trip with a loss by fall to Ireland McCain of Round Lake in the fifth-place match.

Mustangs junior Paris Flores (100), senior Neida Arreola (115), senior Ximena Juarez (125), sophomore Faith Comas (135) and senior Aseel Jadallah (235) also qualified for state. Arreola, Juarez and Jadallah each won a match.

Best of the Rest
Curie’s Aaliyah GrandBerry got her name in the Condor record books as the program’s first state medalist. GrandBerry, a sophomore, entered the tournament 8-0 and continued her winning ways by pinning each of her first three opponents.

She was finally stopped in the 235-pound championship match by Kiara Ganey of Belleville East, who won by fall. Ganey, a junior, finished her season unbeaten.

Curie’s Vanessa Torres (120), a sophomore, also wrestled at state, dropping both her matches.

Evergreen Park junior Elliana Balderrama went 3-3 on the weekend and finished on the medals podium in sixth place. Balderrama (14-8) lost her first match before rattling off three wins in a row. She dropped a 6-3 decision in the consolation semifinals, then got pinned by Juliana Conroy of Buffalo Grove in the fifth-place match.

Other area state qualifiers were sophomore Eleanor Aphay of Riverside-Brookfield (120), senior Myeisha Davis of Kenwood (170), and Ava McGuire (145) and Emma Akpan (170) of the Andrew Co-op. McGuire is a sophomore at Stagg and Akpan is a freshman at Sandburg.