Roosevelt girls wrestling team defeats Tahquitz for CIF Southern Section Division 3 dual-meet title – Press Enterprise

EASTVALE — When the season began in November, the Roosevelt girls wrestling team was only fifth in the initial CIF Southern Section Division 3 rankings.

But the Mustangs set out to improve on that ranking and put themselves in position to win the program’s first dual-meet section championship.

They eventually earned the No. 1 seed, and being a favorite seemed to suit Roosevelt just as well as being an underdog to start the season did.

Thursday, the Mustangs finished off that goal, defeating Tahquitz 57-15 at Roosevelt High School to claim the title.

Roosevelt became the third Inland girls wrestling program to win a Southern Section dual-meet title, joining Corona and Paloma Valley.

“It feels good to be done with it,” Roosevelt coach Korey Jensen said. “The whole time we were pretty confident. I think we wrestled better than I thought, to be honest.”

Thursday’s margin of victory was the Mustangs’ largest of the Division 3 tournament after beating Temescal Canyon (60-24), Lakewood (53-30) and Chaparral (51-30) in the preliminary rounds last weekend.

The Mustangs got off to a quick start, winning each of the first three weights: 135 pounds (Sophia Cardenas win by 6-2 decision), 140 (Ava McGowan win by pin) and 145 Olivia Infante (win by pin).

“That part (wrestling the first match) was a little bit nerve-wracking,” Cardenas said. “I knew what positions I had to wrestle through.”

There were only two lineup switches after the initial introductions.

One was Jensen deciding to wrestle senior Ava Hetrick at 190, even though she could have wrestled at 170. Tahquitz did not have a wrestler at 170, so Jensen decided to take a double forfeit at 170 and have Hetrick replace Clarissa Contreras at 190. And Hetrick won via a pin at the 2:37 mark.

“Our 190 is a little banged up right now, so we double-forfeited,” Jensen said. “The goal was to keep them as far away as 42 (team points) as possible. Once you get past 42, you’ve won. That was the goal.”

With the double forfeit (where neither team gets points), it didn’t take 42 points for Roosevelt to clinch the win. The Mustangs clinched the win at the ninth weight when senior Maressa McGowan recorded a pin in 1:04 at 105 pounds to give them a 39-3 lead.

“This (winning CIF) has been one of my goals since my freshman year,” Cardenas said. “I wasn’t coming in expecting all this. I was really excited, building up winning more duals. Getting to this point was really fun, because we weren’t the No. 1 team coming in (to the season). It was really worth it. Now we’re getting our rings.”

It ended a remarkable run for Tahquitz which entered the Division 3 playoffs seeded 10th, but defeated Placentia Valencia (50-30), No. 2 Camarillo (54-30) and Rio Mesa (51-27) to reach the final.

“We were not supposed to be here (in the final),” Titans coach Carlos Cordero said. “We have some really good, tough girls and they never give up. They never thought they’d be in this position. I know they’re a little down, but I’m so proud of the girls.”