Club celebrates state title
BRAWLEY — For the past two weekends, members of the Brawley Gladiators Club along with their parents and coaches have traveled up state to compete in a series of tournaments.
On March 16 and 17, the team competed in the USA California Folkstyle State Championships, and on Saturday and Sunday, they took on challengers in the SCWAY Kids State Championships.
Both tournaments were held in Fresno and pitted the young athletes among the best in California, with the local squad faring well among the competition.
Place winners at the USA tournament included Vida Barra (eighth, novice girls, 65 pounds), Nowell Limentang (sixth, Bantam, 45 pounds), Jonathan DeGuzman (fourth, Bantam, 56 pounds), Eli Sandoval (second, Bantam, 43 pounds), Alan Carrillo (second, middle school, 160 pounds) and Savannah Gomez (first, girls middle school, 125 pounds).
The club’s bantam-division athletes all did well enough to give the club a bantam division state title.
“The kids were really excited about it,” said cohead coach Victor Martinez. “From what they’ve seen, wrestling is more of an individual sport, but together, all the hard work they put in this year earned them a plaque with ‘team championship’ on it. They all thought it was awesome.”
The team didn’t have much time to rest, as many individuals also competed in the SCWAY tourney.
“As far as youth wrestling in the state, those are the two big associations we compete in,” Martinez explained. “Some kids competed in both. One of the differences is that the age brackets are different.”
Despite the short turnaround between competitions, the club also had placers at the SCWAY event.
Place winners included Benjamin Limentang (seventh place, 8-and-under, 58 pounds), Nowell Limentang (fourth place, 6-and-under 46 pounds), Eli Sandoval (second place, 6-and-under 46 pounds), Matthew Gutierrez (second place, 10-and-under, 128 pounds) and Alan Carrillo (second place, middle school, 167 pounds).
Martinez noted the dedication from the young team and their parents in order to compete at both competitions.
“As coaches, Ray Leon and I, we really love our parent group,” Martinez said. “They have been awesome this year. They’ve done an outstanding job fundraising and they’ve made the sacrifice to give these kids more opportunities to compete at high levels.”
In addition to the parents, Martinez also expressed his appreciation to other wrestling clubs in the Imperial Valley.
“Team Tuff, they train out of Southwest (High School) helped us prep for state both those weeks,” Martinez explained. “We came together to train, and we cheer each other on at tournaments and help each other out at these events.”