The Madill High School wrestling team quali!ed four girls and one boy for this week’s state tournaments in Oklahoma City withstrongregionaltournament e'orts.
Anglena Mendiola, Mekayla Westbrook, Madelyn Ritchie, Kaydence Bourland and Alex Sarabia all punched their state tickets for the event slated at the new OG&E Fairgrounds Coliseum. Braxton Gimenez is also a state tournament alternate.
Mendiolawasthetopregional placerofthegroupbyclaiming runner-uphonorsat235pounds as she posted a 44-second fall victory over Anna Toumbs of Marlow and 4:35 pin fall verdict against Tuttle’s Kurstyn Walker.
Westbrook tallied third place honors in the 170-pound class, posting wins in four of her !ve matches. The Lady Wildcat stalwart notched a 1:08 fall facing Kaley Davis from Marlow and a 1:12 fall over Little Axe’s Chelsi Church before her !rst defeat. She rebounded in consolation round action, outlasting Addy Thrash from Anadarko for a 9-6 decision and then stopped Cache’s Kennedi Phillips by fall at 1:49.
Ritchie checked in fourth at 190 pounds by winning three timesallbyfallin!vematches.In the opener, the Madill grappler outdueled Georgia Chambers of Lone Grove in 4:54 and then dispatched Lexington’s Valeria Chavez at 2:53.
Following a major decision loss, Ritchie rebounded with a 2:50 fall triumph against Madison Evey from Geary to reach the medal round before a narrow 5-3 loss to McLoud’s Riley Samarippa.
The !nal Lady Wildcat placer was Bourland at 140 pounds as she!nished!fthbysandwiching a pair of wins around two defeats. She toppled Aubrie Davis of Little Axe for a 1:06 fall and also turned back Comanche’s Kylie Willer for a 1:36 fall.
Lexi Willis at 105 and Samantha Ortiz at 110 pounds each picked up three victories, including a pair of pin falls apiece, but fell one match short of placing. Willis downed Olivia Peterson from Anadarko in 1:06 and Ardmore’s Marlie Good at 2:47. Ortiz’s pin falls came in 5:22 against Melodie Martinez of Elk City and 3:07 versus Nicole Bucher from Woodward.
Hannah Pruitt also notched a 4:22 fall win over Henryetta’s Sophia Simpson.
On the boys’ side, Sarabia battledthroughatoughbracket at 215 pounds to reach the state tournamentasafreshman,scoring four victories that included three via fall.
TheWildcat youngster needed just 29 seconds to take down TristenRossofWoodwardbyfall. Following a technical fall loss to top seed Devyn Anderson from Plainview, Sarabia rebounded with a 4:20 fall triumph against Broken Bow’s Aadin Taylor as well as 5:41 fall win over Tristin LeBlanc of Bridge Creek. That got him in the medal rounds wherehedroppedalate!rstperiod fall to Andrew Willard from Weatherford before receiving an injury forfeit from Sallisaw’s Hunter Smith.
Gimenez tallied a pair of victories in five matches in the 113-pound division, placing sixth but just out of automatic state qualifying position. He will still serve as an alternate however.
Victories for Gimenez came via a 60-second fall versus Creed Southerland of Plainview as well as a 2:33 fall over Cache’s Brock Jones.
Other Madill wrestlers that pickedupwinsincludedJackson Harper at 150 pounds where he notcheda2-2record.Onevictory came in an 8-6 decision over Elk City’s Ethan Nelson and the second was a 1:37 fall triumph in which he stopped Ardmore’s Lisandro Hernandez.
At175pounds,BrylonGibson notched one win with a 1:57 fall over Parker Berven-Fox. The Wildcats’ Xavier Diaz was a 5:52 fall victor at 190 pounds facing Woodward’s Noah Garcia and Bryce Culp received a win at 157 poundsviadisquali!cationfrom Gavin O’Neill from Broken Bow.