Curtiss shines on 1st day of state wrestling

Six of the seven local wrestlers competing at the CIF State Wrestling Championships received rude welcomes, losing their first-round matches.

But Tokay’s Cassidy Curtiss not only won her first match, but knocked off the 235-pound division’s top seed to advance to the state quarterfinals.

Curtiss started the day by pinning Olympin High’s Angelina Leal in 2 minutes, 42 seconds, and then faced a tall task in No. 1 seed Isela Mendez of Northview. Curtiss scored first with a 2-point takedown, and Mendez escaped for 1 point.

Curtiss was awarded 1 point twice in the second period for penalties, and neither wrestler scored in the final period for a 4-1 victory for the Tokay wrestler.

When the girls quarterfinals gets going this afternoon, Curtiss will face James Logan’s Tatianna Herrera, who pinned both of her opponents on

Thursday.

The rest of Tokay’s wrestlers had just one match on Thursday — Gabrielle Medeiros (101pound division) took an 8-6 loss to Marina High’s Keilania Schufeldt in sudden-victory overtime, Samira Mason (111) was pinned by Head Royce’s Artemisi Matera in 3:01, and Madelyn Evans (143) was pinned by top-seeded Cheyenne Bowman of Rowland High in 1:49.

Those three will start the first consolation round first thing this morning, as will the area’s lone boys representative, Jonathan Nguyen (106), who was pinned by Beau Mantanona of Palm Desert in 47 seconds.

Lodi’s two girls suffered losses — Anna Rodriguez (131) was pinned by Madera’s Amber Plascencia in 3:32, and Raven Edwards lost an 8-2 decision to San Fernando’s Natalie Castaneda.

Liberty Ranch’s Itzel Medina-Valdez (106) lost by a technical fall (15-0) to Sobrato High’s Nyla Valencia.