It’s the start of a very busy week of wrestling for the Wawasee girls program. Coach Miguel Rodriguez wants to see what his roster has when pushed by quality opponents on what will be a frequent basis.

He saw some real guts from his roster Wednesday, walking into the Tiger Den and stomping on the Lady Tigers, 48-21.

Warsaw, which had finished ahead of Wawasee in the team standings at both the Penn and Rochester Invites earlier this season, provided plenty of motivation for Rodriguez to challenge his roster. Also finding out less than a day ago that the state tournament will now feature a team component, catching some of the teams that have been ahead of Wawasee was a prime objective.

In several cases, that grit the coach wanted see was on full display. Kenidi Nine exemplified that more than anyone in the room. Pausing mid-match to assess a shoulder injury, Nine was all but finished against Natalie Davis. But off the restart for the second period after Davis was in total control of the first, Nine worked out of bottom against Davis, worked a combo into a pin, and a mix of passion and pain were written all over the junior’s face.

Hadley Faroute and Alex Garcia both worked out of early takedowns to regain composure and score second period pins. Garcia endured a slow first period to work over Mariana Castro, and Faroute escaped fate in the first period to come back with a second rounder against Paloma Cervantes.

“Those past tournaments that Warsaw and us were part of, they may have finished higher than us, but tonight, we got to show them we’re ready,” Rodriguez said. “I liked the fight we showed here. It’s what we’ve been talking about for a couple weeks now.”

Wawasee had three other pins on the night, Cyanna Leon scoring six points 52 seconds in on Claris Avila, and her younger sister, Naviya, eight seconds before time expired in her match with Emily Dawson. Sylvia Dixon was precision perfect in beating Makayla McGlennen in 31 seconds. Even Isabelle Brown giving up 50 pounds to Kristina Kolembe and keeping her base just enough late to lose just by a major decision rather than a tech fall, 13-0, was a win in itself for Rodriguez.

“If you are nervous, you’ll panic because you don’t know what to do. It shows you’re not having fun,” Rodriguez said. “Once you start having fun, things will come back to you. We have fun in the practice room. So now, bring that to the match, and things start to come back to you. I felt like we saw that tonight. The girls were having fun, and we got some positive results out of it.”

Wawasee will host East Noble Thursday evening in a girls only matchup, and will head to East Noble on Saturday for the East Noble Invite.

At Warsaw
Wawasee 48, Warsaw 21

155 – Alex Garcia (Waw) pin Mariana Castro (2:55)  6-0
170 – Kaiah Long (War) pin Kenadi Pierce (:23)  6-6
190 – Tiana Senders (Waw) forfeit  12-6
235 – Kristina Kolembe (War) major dec Isabelle Brown (14-0)  12-10
100 – Double forfeit
105 – Double forfeit
110 – Hadley Faroute (Waw) pin Paloma Cervantes (2:51)  18-10
115 – Lydia LaBarbera (Waw) forfeit  24-10
120 – Sylvia Dixon (Waw) pin Makayla McGlennen (:31)  30-10
125 – Kynna Yoder (War) tech fall Katie Sigsbee (18-1)  30-15
130 – Emma Dewald (War) pin Evalyn Blanco (2:00)  30-21
135 – Kenidi Nine (Waw) pin Natalie Davis (2:15)  36-21
140 – Cyanna Leon (Waw) pin Claris Avila (:52)  42-21
145 – Naviya Leon (Waw) pin Emily Dawson (5:52)  48-21

JV Match
125 – Lilly Winston (War) pin Aaliyah James (:05)  6-0