Rodriguez Repeats as National Champion; Four Tigers Place at USA Nationals

The Tiger Women's Wrestling team was represented by six competitors at the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Wrestling National Championships in Spokane, Washington, over the past weekend. Competing in the 20U division was Cristelle Rodriguez, the defending champion at 55kg. Competing in the 23U division were Aspen Barber, Aevri Ciha, Ashlee Palimo'o, Bridgette Sotomayor, and Karina Vang.

The 23U brackets got underway on April 12 with all brackets advancing to the placing matches on Saturday. All placement matches took place on April 13. 

At 50kg, Vang (2-2) opened with a 12-0 tech fall win and then posted a pin at 1:49. She dropped her quarterfinal round match to the eventual third place finisher, Makenzie Smith. In the consolation bracket, Vang was defeated by the eventual fifth place finisher, Alexis Miller.

Palimo'o (3-3) wrestled at 59kg and opened with a 5-3 decision victory. Her next match was a win by pin in 56 seconds. In the quarterfinal round, she dropped her match to eventual third place finisher Larissa Kaz. Palimo'o advanced to the medal rounds with a 6-4 decision in her first consolation match. She dropped her next match to the eventual fifth place finisher, Cindy Zepeda. Palimo'o came home with an eighth place finish as she lost her last match, 5-3.

Sotomayor (0-2) had a tough draw as she competed at 62kg. She dropped her opening match to the eventual fifth place finisher, Emmily Patneaud. In the consolation bracket, she dropped her match to the eventual fourth place finisher, Alexandra Szkotnicki.

Ciha (3-3) opened with a win by pin in 50 seconds in the 65kg bracket. She followed with a 9-6 decision to advance to the quarterfinals. Her first loss of the tournament came to the eventual champion, Aine Drury. In the consolation bracket, Ciha bounced back with a win by pin to advance to the medal round. She dropped a match to eventual sixth place finisher, Amelia Fawcett, and finished eighth overall after dropping a 10-0 match to Alexandra Lopez.

Barber (4-1) opened the 72kg bracket with a bye. In her first match, she lost a 10-4 decision to Noelle Gaffney. Barber bounced back in the consolation bracket with three straight pins. She won in 2:14 and 1:50 to advance to the medal round. She claimed another pin in 4:47 over eventual fifth place finisher Lydia Krause to advance to the third place match where she would face Gaffney for the second time. Barber would come from behind in the final 90 seconds of the match to tie the score at 3-all and by scoring the last point, she received the decision victory to claim third place overall.

Also on Saturday, the 20U brackets began competition with Rodriguez in action. She went unscored upon on the first day of action, going 4-0 to advance to the championship on Sunday in a best 2-of-3 head-to-head format. Rodriguez opened the competition with a pin in 45 seconds. She followed with back-to-back tech fall wins, 10-0 and 11-0, to advance to the semifinals. There, she defeated eventual fourth place finisher Karlee Brooks.

In the championship on Sunday, Rodriguez took on Zao Estrada. In their first match, Rodriguez jumped out to an 8-0 lead before finishing off the match with a pin in 1:25. In the second match, Rodriguez needed one takedown to put Estrada on her back and finished off the match with a pin in 55 seconds to claim her second straight national title as she went unscored upon in the tournament.

Rodriguez has qualified to represent the USA in the World Championships this fall but will turn her attention quickly to the U.S. Olympic Trials in State College, Pennsylvania, on April 19-20.