The goal now for the La Cañada High girls’ wrestling team is to show up and show out at the CIF Southern Section Individual Wrestling Championships, but first, the Spartans had to focus on the Rio Hondo League finals at Monrovia High on Feb. 2.
In total, 13 members of the Spartans girls’ wrestling team qualified for CIF, and nine won league titles in the girls’ division. Not to be outdone, the La Cañada boys’ wrestling team, too, qualified 13 grapplers for the individual championships, with four members being crowned league champions.
The CIF Southern Section Individual Wrestling Championships will take place over two days starting Friday, Feb. 9, across six different school sites. Wrestlers will participate in the semifinal and championship matches on Saturday, Feb. 10.
Top finishers among the boys and girls will qualify for the CIF Southern Section Wrestling Masters Meet held at Palm Springs High School on Friday, Feb. 16.
For the girls, Spartans senior Allison Ingrassia, junior Angel Lee, sophomore Dasha Vsevolozhsky, junior Iris Rivas, sophomore Vera Grivennikova and Jianna Lee participated in a championship match and came away with a title.
Ingrassia won the title in the 125-pound division by defeating Angel Bogharyan of Hoover in the first round, and Vsevolozhsky topped Chloe Souza of San Marino in the opening period of the 145-pound title match. In the 175-pound championship, Rivas claimed the title following a third-round victory against Isabelle Ruiz of Burbank. Grivennikova won the 190-pound league crown after defeating Erin Sarkisian of Burbank in the opening round of the championship matchup. Jianna Lee won the league crown after defeating Serineh Crane of Hoover in the first round of the 115-pound title match, and Spartans junior Angel Lee defeated Leilah Hernandez of Burbank in the second period of the 120-pound championship matchup.
A trio of La Cañada wrestlers were crowned champions without hitting the mat. Spartans sophomore Joanne Kim (135), sophomore Elizabeth Kankiewicz (140) and sophomore Anna Kleineahlbrandt (235) won league titles but did not face competition.
La Cañada freshman Arra Cho and sophomore Marie Basset finished runner-up in their respective divisions.
Cho fell to Malia Manibog of San Marino in the first round of the 100-pound championship match, and Basset lost her 130-pound title match to Kendall Chapman of Burbank in a 3-2 decision.
Meanwhile, a quartet of Spartans won league championships for the La Cañada boys’ wrestling team. Spartans senior Sasha Kliegl, junior Michael Manzano, sophomore Levi Goldsworthy and junior Dylan Baetslec came out on top in their championship matches.
Kliegl won the 106-pound title with a second-round victory over Daniel Hambardzumyan of Burbank, and Manzano came away with the 120-pound league crown following a 9-1 decision victory over Richard Ma of San Marino. The junior defeated Samvel Marutyan of Burbank in the semifinal.
Goldsworthy won the 165-pound championship match against Seth Edmonson of Monrovia. The sophomore defeated Matthew Aldana of Hoover in the first period of the tournament opener to reach the title match.
Baetsle won both of his rounds by decision. The junior defeated Vladislav Pak of Burbank following a 15-7 decision in the 190-pound title match having advanced to the championship following a 19-4 decision over Nutthee Bhavabhutanon of San Marino in the tournament opener.
Four Spartans, junior Bryan Green and seniors Clive Fernando, Ben Riesberg, Max Rosen, finished runner-up in their title matches.
Fernando was bested in the third round of the 138-pound title match against Richard Kalajyan of Burbank. The senior previously scored a semifinal victory over Justin Nasfell of Village Christian.
Riesberg lost in the first round of the 144-pound championship in his bout against Ryder Yoshitake of San Marino. The senior defeated Noah Jaramillo of Monrovia through a 13-4 decision to reach the 144-pound title match.
Rosen fell to Grickore Danelyan of Hoover in the 175-pound championship matchup after defeating Brandon Fajardo of Monrovia in the first round of the semifinal.
Green battled, but was narrowly defeated by Julian Solis of San Marino following a 3-2 decision in the 215-pound championship. Green booked a spot in the title match following a first-period victory over Andre Takhmasian of Burbank in the previous round.
A group of La Cañada grapplers placed third in the league finals. Among the boys, freshman Case Bertonneau, senior Siddarth Pillai, sophomore Matias Juniel and senior Geoffrey Butler all won the consolation bracket of their respective weight classes.
Bertonneau defeated Adrian Navarro of Monrovia following an 8-4 decision in the 132-pound division. He defeated Marcus Wu of San Marino in the first round before losing to Sevak Araklyen of Burbank in the semifinal.
Pillai finished third in the 150-pound division after defeating Aiden Elizalde of Monrovia in the first period of the final matchup of the consolation round. Pillai fell into the consolation bracket following a loss to Dylan Simon of Village Christian by a 3-1 decision in the semifinal round. The senior defeated Arnold Tarverdyan of Burbank to advance to the third-place battle.
Juniel defeated Tigran Galstian of Hoover to finish third in the 157-pound bracket. Juniel started his run with a second-period victory over Kade Cunningham of Village Christian in the opening round and dropped to the consolation bracket after losing to Devin Booth of Monrovia in the semifinal.
Butler placed third in the heavyweight division, losing to Maxim Pogosyan of Burbank in the 285-pound opener. Butler rebounded and defeated Joseph Webster of Monrovia following a 2-0 decision to finish third.
First published in the February 8 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
