By Emme Tran | Copy Editor
On the weekend of Feb. 11-12, the Gabrielino High School (GHS) boys and girls wrestling teams went on to compete in the Southern Section California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) qualifiers beginning at 11 a.m. Seniors Collin Chong, Caleb Cordoba, Logan Tan, juniors Joseph Martinez, Kyle Truong, and Isaac Valencia competed at Shadow Hills High School while seniors Scarlet Gillings, Karyme Peña, and freshman Karina Vargas competed at San Dimas High School. Tan placed sixth while Cordoba placed eighth.
Last year, the boys wrestling team placed second in the league and qualified for CIF. However, they could not move on due to the lack of available athletes to compete. The girls wrestling team did not qualify for CIF previously.
Separated into different weight classes, wrestlers were placed in a bracket to compete individually. Winners move on to compete in a championship bracket for first and second place, while those who lost move on to compete in the constellation bracket for third through sixth place.
“Going in, I didn’t have extremely high expectations since it is my first year wrestling,” said Peña. “I am disappointed in my own personal performance, but I was proud to see the improvement of so many of the other girls. I think the stand out moment was the sense of pride we felt knowing that we would be able to return for day two [on Saturday] because Karina, a freshman on the team, had gone 4-1.”
The wrestling league individual finals were held on Feb. 5 at El Monte High School (EMHS). The Eagles competed against Arroyo High School, EMHS, Marshall Fundamental Secondary School, Mountain View High School, Rosemead High School, and South El Monte High School.
Gillings placed first while Peña and Vargas both placed third in their respective weight classes. Tan placed first, Martinez and Cordoba placed second, Valencia placed third, while Chong and Truong placed fourth in their weight classes. Winners of the league matches moved on to compete at CIF.
Chong stated, “In my experience, you can go into a league match and win really hard, or you can go into a match and lose really hard. I use these matches to fix my little mistakes and move on […] to prepare for CIF.”
“I’m going to be honest, in my matches at CIF, I’ve never won [a match] due to my little time in wrestling and my knowledge of wrestling,” said Chong. “To make it to CIF was a big goal and accomplishment.”
On Jan. 25, GHS competed at an away game against EMHS and lost, 18-48.
“El Monte is one of the schools with a lot more girls on their team, so the competition they bring is interesting since their [team has] more girls to wrestle during their practices,” stated Peña.
The Eagles’ team had a 2-2 score for league tournaments.
