Photos by David Bonilla
Girls Wrestling:
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
The Northview girls wrestling team capped a historic Wednesday night for this storied and proud program.
Approximately an hour after the boys defeated Yucaipa, 42-26, to win the CIF-SS Division 2 team dual championship, the Vikings’ girls claimed a 42-30 victory over Corona to win the Division 1 title.
What made the experience even more sweet for NHS was defeating the same program that knocked them off a year ago in the championship round.
Northview had a 30-12 cushion at one point, but after a Corona pin at heavyweight, and with one match remaining, the Panthers had pulled to within 36-30 of Northview.
The smallest girl to wrestle on Wednesday, 101-pound Jenelle Gonzun, however, sent Corona home unhappy after picking up the match and title-clinching pin in just 25 seconds.
Alexis Garza (106 pounds) began the night in great form for the Vikings, picking up a second-period pin to give Northview a 6-0 team lead.
After a (7-5) loss at 111 pounds, Alejandra Sanchez (116) extended the NHS team lead to 12-3 when she stuck her Panthers’ opponent at 3:48.
Leilani Lazaro, who is ranked second in the state and undefeated, stayed perfect, with a 9-4 victory at 121 pounds.
Corona picked up a pin and decision victory to get as close as 15-12, but 137-pound Leticia Sanchez earned six team points with a pin and the Vikings led 21-12.
Andrea Mateo (143) secured three team points with her 3-2 decision victory.
And Savannah Lewis would follow at 150 pounds with a first-period pin to extend the lead to 30-12.
Rebecca Juarez got six huge points with a pin-fall victory at 189 pounds.
And then, as mentioned, Jenelle Gonzun shut the door on any hopes Corona had of staging a last-second victory.
Northview legend David Ochoa, among others, was way ahead of the curve in trying to promote girls wrestling.
And now, several years later, to see Ochoa as intense as ever, and to see the crowd arguably bigger and louder than even the boys had cheering them on was quite an experience for this writer.
And it’s a credit to the girls and their coaches, including their head coach, Roy Lazaro.
The following are a couple match highlights and a couple of interviews, and at the bottom of this story is a link to RT Tolentino’s photo gallery.
To view RT Tolentino’s photo gallery, click on the Facebook link here: Facebook
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