Lady Cats send six to state meet

Feb. 10—ROSWELL — Clovis High's girls are sending a program-record six wrestlers to state competition, scheduled for Feb. 20-21 at Rio Rancho Events Center.

The Lady Wildcats claimed seventh place in the 33-team Region 2 meet on Friday and Saturday at Roswell High, finishing with 126 1/2 team points. Las Cruces High captured the team title with 192 1/2 points, edging Atrisco Heritage (190).

Qualifiers for the Lady Cats were seniors Jarelly Navarette at 110 pounds, Zulehiny Mendoza at 115 and Sunnay Ward at 170; junior Guadalupe Guzman at 190; sophomore J'Lyn San Miguel at heavyweight, and freshman Natalie Mejia at 130. The previous school mark for the five-year-old program was three qualifiers, set last year.

Mejia (22-3) posted the highest finish of the weekend, taking second place with a 3-1 record and losing by third-period pin to Cobre's Analisa Garcia in the 110-pound finals. Meantime, Navarrete (31-5) was third in her division with a 4-1 mark; Ward (27-6) split four matches to take fourth place; Mendoza (33-8) and Guzman each placed sixth with respective records of 3-2 and 2-3 for the weekend, and San Miguel (5-11) claimed seventh place with a 2-3 mark.

Class 5A boys regional competition for CHS is scheduled for Saturday at West Mesa.

Lady Rattlers' Sanchez advances — Tucumcari junior Sarah Sanchez finished fourth in the 115-pound weight class on Saturday during the Region 1 girls wrestling tournament hosted by Rio Rancho Cleveland and qualified for the state meet later this month.

Sanchez (19-6) advanced to the semifinal round on Friday of the sprawling event before losing to Aneka Yaney of La Cueva. On Saturday, she fought her way through the consolation round before losing her third-place match to Brianna Garcia of Volcano Vista.

"She had a good tournament," THS coach Tim Clark said. "She had a hard match against the little girl from La Cueva, which is a solid team.

"In the consolation finals, she made a few mental mistakes but made it a good battle," he said. "A fourth-place setting will help us a bit in seeding for the state."

Also for Tucumcari, junior Brook Garcia (130 pounds), freshman Keakulina Martinez (110) and eighth-grader Kadi Norton (120) competed but did not advance.

The top seven finishers in each weight class (plus two wild cards statewide) automatically qualified for the upcoming state meet at RREC.

Volcano Vista won the team title Saturday with 221 points, edging runner-up Cleveland and its 204 points. Tucumcari finished 24th with 20 points.

On Friday and Saturday, Tucumcari will host a postseason wrestling tournament for the first time in more than two decades.

Rattler Gymnasium will be the site of the 20-team Class 1-4A Region 1 boys tournament that also decides who qualifies for the state meet. Weigh-ins begin at noon on Friday, with wrestling to start at 2 p.m. through the semifinal rounds that evening.

Medal rounds will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, with championships in the early afternoon. The tournament is expected to conclude about 3 p.m.

Clark said admission to the event will be cash-only.

Lady Cats send six to state meet

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