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ThirdPlace

GRAPPLERS | Othello takes fourth place with 97 points behind Deer Park’s 109From page B1

GIRLS | ‘It was exciting to hear all the girls talking about summer wrestling already’From page B1

been handled … It was very discouraging to prepare for all of those different opponents he was matched up with."

Martinez said it was pretty impressive that Jones qualified for state and he wrestled very well, losing two close matches.

As a freshman, Jones went 25-18, finishing fourth at both the district and reg- ional tournaments.

weren’t going to be derailed," he said.

She opened with a 2:53 pin of Jessica Lee, of Clo-ver Park, followed by a 12-2 win over South Kitsap's Amberlee Brasch.

"In the past three years, we've learned a lesson in al-most every match, so nothing surprised Tatum," he said.

Sparks stayed the course and continued to roll in the semifinals, pinning Spanaway Lake's Raquel Gray in just over a minute.

“I think watching her best friend (former state champ Allesha Reyes) win it last year was a real motivator," Marti-nez said.

In the finals, Granger's An-gelica Rodriguez was no con-test for Sparks. The Othello junior won by major decision, 15-1, capping an undefeated season with 38 wins and a state title.

In three years, Sparks has built an impressive 121-6 record.

Rosana PenaFreshman, 170 pounds

Pena put together a tremen-

dous freshman season, win-ning 32 matches while only losing nine.

Martinez said Pena regular-ly wrested at a higher weight class during the season in preparation for state.

She realizes now that wres-tling at the higher class really prepared her for wrestling at her normal weight class of 170 pounds," he said. "Those girls (190 pounds) are a lot stron-ger so when she got down to 170, it was a little easier for her to handle."

She opened with a first-round pin in 1:42 of Thalia Veliz, of Lynden. She was then pinned in 24 seconds by eventual runner-up Kiaya Van Scoyoc, of Lakes.

From the consolation rounds, she then went on a tear.

She pinned Rainier's Ke-anna Vermillion in just un-der five minutes. She pinned Fernanda Carmon, of Federal Way, in a quick 34 seconds, ad-vancing her to a match against eventual third-place finisher Kacie Moorehouse, of Frank-lin Pierce.

Moorhouse pinned Pena in 32 seconds, moving the Othel-

lo freshman into the match for fifth or sixth place.

Jessica Cardenas, of Sunny-side, put Pena on her back in 31 seconds, pinning her and end-ing Pena's season with a sixth-place finish.

Martinez said their goal with the freshman was to just get them to the state tournament and get them the experience.

"Her placing was just that much more of a success for her and showed the hard work she put in," he said.

"Whether she's on her back or down by 14 points, she will never give up until that pin is called or that whistle is blown."

Phelicia Perez Senior, 137 pounds

Perez, who missed last year's state tournament, first qualified as a sophomore and returned to Tacoma focused.

She came out strong in the opening round, winning a close match, 11-10, and advancing to the quarter fi-nals against Joanna Moreira, of Liberty High School, in Issaquah.

Again, Perez battled but lost by 7-4 decision, moving the se-nior to the consolation bracket.

In her first match against Sedro Woolley's Taylor Daw-son, neither wrestler used much of an offensive attack, spending most of their time standing up.

Dawson defeated Perez by 1-0 decision, ending her wres-tling career.

She posted a 31-13 record as a senior and finished second at the district tournament and third at the regional contest. She was a state participant as a sophomore.

"Overall, they (seniors Tori Zambrano and Perez) had a great tournament," Martinez said. "They both scored some team points.

Martinez said Perez's great challenge was not having a re-ally effective offensive attack. He said she's always been a de-fensive wrestler.

"When you get to that level, not having that attack to take the shot at the state tourna-ment is tough … you have to have multiple shots to be suc-cessful," he said.

Tori ZambranoSenior, 112 pounds

Like Perez, Zambrano first qualified for the state tour-nament as a sophomore but missed last year's tournament after an early season injury kept her from qualifying when it counted.

"She was really eager to get back and end her career on a high note," Martinez said. "She went through the same thing as Phelicia, so her motivation was to get back here."

Zambrano opened with a round one loss, by pin, in 1:50 to Yelm's Hailey Meyers. Working from the consola-tion bracket, she pinned Shan-non Parmley, of Kentwood, in 2:28, followed by an 8-4 loss to Nooksack Valley's Alexandra Parson. Her senior season end-ing with 31 wins and 10 loses.

"She wrestled great all year and these girls have only had two and half years to learn this sport, " Martinez said. "Compared to other schools that have girls who have been wrestling since they were 4 years old, we were really impressed. They (Perez and Zambrano) both helped us get valuable team points."

Nikki VelazquezFreshman, 124 pounds

Velazquez's first tournament match was against the return-ing state champion from Todd Beamer High Schools, Arian Carpio. Thankfully, nobody told Valezquez that.

"She never knew who that girl was and we never told her before the match," Martinez said. "And she wrestled her pretty tough."

Carpio, a junior, who would eventually pin every opponent she faced, put Velazquez on her back in 1:31 and held her there for the win.

She then faced Concrete junior Anjelika Koenig, who Velazquez defeated by 10-5

decision. In her last match, she faced Royal senior Brea Diaz who won by 9-2 decision, end-ing Velazquez's season.

"In that last match, she bummed her leg, but she bat-tled out there and kept going," Martinez said.

She finished her freshman season with a 30-14 record.

Izzy ChavezFreshman, 190 pounds

Chavez was the third fresh-man to qualify for the state tournament after posting a season record of 15-8

Martinez said she had very few matches during the sea-son but made the most of every match.

"She was able to grab that fourth-place spot at region-als, which made it exciting to get her the state experience," he said.

Chavez lost both matches, by pin, in under 40 seconds. She was pinned by even-tual runner-up Hannah Le-wandowski, of White River, in 20 seconds, followed by a 38-second pin by Yelm's Tonie Edwards.

"For her to get in there and get that success and experi-ence is great," Martinez said. "She's never really played a rough sport so she got roughed up with bumps and bruises all season. But she kept at it."

Photo by Eric LaFontainE

Senior Phelicia Perez ended her high school career with an impressive senior season. She went 31-13 wrestling at 137 pounds.

Photo by Eric LaFontainE

Freshman Rosana Pena finished sixth place at 170 pounds, becoming only the second freshman wrestler in school’s history to place at the state tournament. She won four matches and lost two during the tournament.

Photo by Eric LaFontainE

Senior Tori Zambrano returned to Tacoma for the first time since her sopho-more year and ended her final season with a 31-10 record.

Photo by Eric LaFontainE

Nikki Velazquez, a freshman, lost to returning 124-pound state champion Arian Carpio, of Todd Beamer, in round one and ended her freshman season with 30 wins and 14 losses.

Photo by bob barrEtt

Izzy Chavez, one of three freshman qualifying for the Mat Classic in Tacoma, lost both matches and finished her season with a 15-8 record.