Armijo girls earn respect at wrestling championships

California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Wrestling Championships is a statewide tournament where students compete if they place at two or three other tournaments. CIF is basically used to weed out the wrestlers who will compete at State and the tournament before State is Masters.

The Armijo Royals were able to send three members to Masters: Dominic Haber, Ashlee Gutierrez, and Megan Irwin. Haber’s advice to future wrestlers was, “Don’t take the time for granted. You’re going to wish that you put the time in when it counted,” advice each clearly took to heart this season.

At Masters, Gutierrez and Irwin wrestled hard, securing their place at State on the first day. Haber was not able to compete the first day of the tournament because he did not make the required weight for his bracket. Although his time at Masters was short lived, Haber was the only boy from Armijo’s team to make it to that level.

Gutierrez settled for 4th and Irwin placed 3rd at Masters, both qualifying for state.

At State, Gutierrez placed top sixteen in a bracket of thirty-two girls. After succumbing to the fourth seed in her first match of day one, she proceeded on to Consoles. Day two she won her first two matches, but in her last match, she wrestled hard but lost. Gutierrez, will be joining her sister Dyanna Gutierrez on the list of Armijo’s State qualifiers/placers. She has a promising future in wrestling, especially considering only being a second year.

Irwin wrestled in a bracket of thirty-two girls, landing 7th place in her first year of wrestling. Coach Darius Levan said, “Megan Irwin capped off a stellar first-year by defeating four worthy opponents en route to her 7th place medal. In all, Irwin topped three Masters Champions and the SJS Masters Runner-Up at the show.”

Armijo is slowly but surely building their team of strong wrestlers, hoping to bring even more next year. Haber, Gutierrez and Irwin all have bright futures in their high school wrestling career and Armijo should be excited to see what they accomplish next.