Wildcats dominate Ivy League girls wrestling finals

Paloma Valley's Makayla Correa looks to the referee as she prepares to pin her opponent in overtime Thursday night. Menifee 24/7 photos by Doug Spoon

Story has been updated to include the names of all 13 Wildcats who qualified for Regionals.

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The Paloma Valley High girls wrestling team added more success to the program's finest season ever Thursday night, dominating the Ivy League finals.

The Wildcats hosted the league finals for both the Ivy League and Sunbelt League and put on quite a show for the visiting participants as well as home fans. Sending 12 wrestlers to the championship round among the 14 weight classes, Paloma Valley won nine of the 12. In all, 13 Wildcat wrestlers will advance to the CIF Eastern Regionals at Hillcrest High School in Riverside Feb. 15.

It was another impressive performance for coach Luis Robles' team, which is unbeaten (5-0) in dual meets this season. Now in its fifth year, the girls wrestling program is enjoying the benefits of seniors who have spent their entire high school career developing their skills.

"Hands down, this is the best season, but every year has been better than the year before," said Robles (right) about the girls program, which now has 30 girls participating.

All nine of the Wildcat league champions won their title bout by pinfall. Jayden Von Moos started things off in the 103-pound division, defeating Elsinore's Lily Torres. Alyssa Guardiola finished off her victory over Orange Vista's Addison Ellis with a pinfall at 113 pounds. At 118, Jade Cavner-Rojas pinned Elsinore's Glenda Nava to win a championship medal.

One of the most competitive matches came at 123 pounds, where Paloma Valley's Makayla Correa won by pinfall over Valley View's Destiny Campbell in overtime. Both girls appeared stretched to the limit before the screaming crowd until Correa finally got Campbell's shoulders to the mat.

Luisita Jara kept the Wildcats' momentum going by pinning Karolyne Tapia of Orange Vista at 128 pounds. Janelle Gomez did the same in defeating Frances Beltran of Valley View at 139 pounds. Another victory by pinfall was recorded by Maya Cruz, who defeated Daisy George of Santa Rosa Academy at 145 pounds.

Kassandra Ayard pinned Ashanti Sweeney of Orange Vista at 191 pounds, while heavyweight Desiree Cortez capped off the impressive performance by pinning Valley View's Kennedi Spencer.

"This is just the first step in qualifying for state," Robles said. "Everybody needed to do their job and they did well. We can still get better."

Three Wildcats who lost in the championship round will also be headed to the Regionals in two weeks: Karissa Turnwall at 108, Muna Ornellas at 152, and Nicole Kucharek at 172. Also qualifying for the Regionals was Madyson Harter, who placed third at 162 pounds.

Robles said the program's success can be attributed to a sense of community that has developed ever since coaches first began inviting every interested girl to try the sport five years ago.

"A lot of schools just look for the warrior types," Robles said. "When we started, we tried to recruit every kind of girl. We had a dancer, a cross country girl, a Polynesian dancer, a band member ... we said, 'Hey, you're a girl. You wanna be a wrestler?" From there, we just built the community aspect."

The girls wrestling program is not the only successful team coached by Robles. The Wildcats boys wrestling team recently won the dual meet league championship, finishing with an 8-0 record. That team will compete in the CIF Division 2 dual meet championships Saturday at Victor Valley High.

Another local winner in the Ivy League finals was Santa Rosa Academy's Erica Schroeder, who pinned Valley View's Alexis Jimenez at 133 pounds. In the Sunbelt League finals, Heritage's Cerridwyn Womack lost to Temescal Canyon's Jayden Andujo in the championship round at 139 pounds and Jazmin Horton of the Patriots lost her 152-pound championship match to Alea Ramirez of Canyon Springs.

Jayden Von Moos gets the best of her opponent en route to victory at 103 pounds.

Janelle Gomez of Paloma Valley gets ready to finish off her opponent in a 139-pound match.

Paloma Valley's Maya Cruz has the upper hand on Santa Rosa Academy's Daisy George in their 145-pound bout.

Desiree Cortez finished off the night by winning her heavyweight bout for Paloma Valley.