TIGERS FIND SUCCESS AT OWN TOURNEY
An injury and the flu bug sat out the top three Tokay High girls wrestlers at the third annual Tokay Lady Tigers Invitational at The Jungle on Saturday.
But it turns out they were not needed for the Tigers to do well.
Tokay, which had no one compete for a championship in any of the weight classes, took second place at their own tournament with 160 points. Del Oro of Loomis won the tourney with 178 points. Lodi was 15th at 64 points.
The Tigers were without the services of Madisen Bozovich (160pound division), who suffered an elbow injury earlier this month but is expected to return soon, according to Tokay coach and father George Bozovich. In addition, Lexi Cavero (170) and Alexis Borruell (189) battled the flu bug last week. All three wrestlers, now seniors, won SacJoaquin Section crowns in their weight classes last winter, and placed at the California Interscholastic Federation Girls Wrestling Championships.
Headlining the day for the Tigers were two girls who medaled at 235; Karime Pedraza took third place and Hailey Brickman sixth.
After earning a first-round bye, Pedraza pinned Livingston’s Nancy’s Valencia for her first win of the day. That was followed with a loss by pin to Casa Grande’s Lilly McCoy.
That set up a meeting against teammate Brickman, who also had a first-round bye. Pedraza advanced with a pin over Brickman. Pedraza went 3-1 for the day that ended with a first round pin over Argonaut’s Jessica Gonzales. Brickman lost her final match to Chico’s Serena Fersa by pin.
Hailey Schindler (141) took fourth place for the Tigers. In the third place match against Whitney’s Carina Pasquale, Schindler and Pasquale battled to a 0-0 score after the first round. But in the second round, Schindler recorded a 2-0 lead on an escape and technical violation called on Pasquale. With four seconds left, Pasquale caught Schindler off-balanced, locked into a headlock
for a pin to win the match.
“She overextended (before the pin),” said Tokay coach George Bozovich on Schindler, who went 3-2 on the day. “You’ve just got to maintain position. You can’t overextend yourself; you can’t get out of position. The whole day, she wrestled well.”
Fifth place finish at 126 went to the Tigers’ Maleena Garvey, who won her first match by pin. After losing her second bout, also by pin, Garvey won her next three matches, two by pin. Garvey didn’t have to compete in the final match, as Casa Roble’s Sophie Ganassin also met the tourney’s five match rule. According to George Bozovich, girls were allowed to wrestle up to five matches at the invitational.
Tokay’s Jessi Gutierrez finished at eighth place at 137. Gutierrez won her first match by pin over Atwater’s Samantha Kim, but lost her next match by pin. Gutierrez went on to win the next three matches, two by pin. Gutierrez’s seventh place led her to forfeiting the medal match because of already competing in five matches on the day.
Bryanna Bernal (131) took eighth for the Tigers. Bernal won her first match by pin, but lost the next match. Bernal, too, won her next three matches, all by pins, and had to forfeit the seventh place match because of wrestling in five matches at the invitational.
At 121, Tokay’s Suleima Mendez also took eighth place. Mendez won her first match, but was pinned in the final two matches.
“Most of the girls out (wrestling) today are new girls,” said George Bozovich, who had 30 Tokay girls compete at the invitational. “The key is getting them reps. Next year; I expect our lighter weights to be a lot stronger.”
Lodi found success on the mats at the invitational. Kaylie Sauerland (189) took fifth place in which she ended her fivematch day with a pin in the third round. In her final match, she pinned McNair’s Isabel Chirbel in the third round.
“She was more comfortable, more aggressive,” said Lodi coach Brian Silva of Sauerland, who has competed at 235 in dual matches.
Sauerland, a two-sport athlete who played on the Lodi volleyball team last fall, finished the day with a 3-2 record. All of her wins were by pin.
Another Flame grappler in Britni Machen (131) took sixth place. Machen went 2-2 that included wins in the second and final rounds.
At 116, Lodi’s Ana Jimenez also went 2-2 that included a first round win by pin.
This season, Lodi has 16 girls competing at the mats. Most of them are underclassmen, Silva noted.
“They are all wrestling, learning the moves,” Silva said.