With her 100-pound finals match scoreless headed to the third round, Merced High junior Maya Rodriguez looked to her corner. It was Rodriguez’s option to choose the starting position for the final round. Rodriguez convinced her coaches to let her start on bottom.

 

The strategy paid off as Rodriguez earned an escape with 22 seconds left in the match for the only point in the finals match against Folsom’s Pia Hill as the Bears star won the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Championship on Saturday at the Adventist Health Arena in Stockton. 

 

“My coaches were kind of doubtful because she’s very strong on top,” Rodriguez said. “She is really, really tough on top, but I just felt I had to get that one point. I didn’t feel like there was going to get any points in neutral.”

 

Rodriguez’s performance earns her a trip to Bakersfield this weekend for the CIF State Championships. “Last year, when I placed (seventh) here at the section tournament, I was like, man, I could really do something with this even though I only started my freshman year. I really had to put my mind to it. Honestly,it feels good. It's just like I've been working for it all year and now I’ve done it.”

Nine MUHSD wrestlers received a medal at Masters with Rodriguez and Golden Valley’s Neveah Rodriguez (105 pounds) qualifying for state.

 

El Capitan’s Kenneth Xiong was the only MUHSD boys wrestler to earn his way on the podium with a sixth-place medal at 113 pounds. Three Livingston High girls wrestlers took home medals with Aalliyah Jordan (105) and Aleydah Revuelta (130) finishing sixth and Lexi Perez (145) placing eighth. Atwater’s Giselle Urquizo (100) finished seventh and teammate Julianna Silvera (170) earned a sixth-place finish. Golden Valley’s Jessi Trejo (170) also finished eighth.

 

Neveah Rodriguez’s ultimate goal was to win a Masters championship, but advancing to the state tournament for the first time in her senior year was rewarding. “I’m very happy,” Rodriguez said. “I just beat a girl who beat me so many times.” Rodriguez The Golden Valleys senior defeated Twelve Bridges Lauren Catlis 6-1 in the third-place match behind takedowns in the first and second round. Rodriguez had lost to Catlis in the semifinals last year and in the Tokay tournament earlier this season.

Neveah Rodriguez had to rebound after starting Saturday morning with a 9-0 loss to Giselle Solano in the semifinals. Rodriguez battled back to win her final two matches to extend her season with a trip to state. Last year, Rodriguez placed sixth at Masters, missing a berth to state with a loss in her final match. This year she earned her trip to Bakersfield. “It was tough,” she said. “I thought about giving up. I wanted to go to state and it’s my last year so I gave it my all.”

 

Rodriguez now follows in her older brother Michael Rodriguez’s footsteps in wrestling at the state meet. Michael placed fifth at state as a junior at Merced High in 2003 after finishing runner-up at the section championships. Michael was in Maya’s corner as an assistant coach at Masters and was the first to greet his little sister after she won.

 

Rodriguez wrestled brilliantly throughout the tournament, only surrendering two points in the entire tournament. She won her semifinal match 12-0 over Cosumnes Oaks’ Abigail Joy Lao. Rodriguez then stuck to the game plan her coaches drew up against Hill that led to the dramatic victory.

 

“Maya definitely wrestled disciplined in order to make this happen this weekend, in order to beat a girl as tough as Pia Hill,” said Merced girls coach Mark Taijeron. “I think our momentum is rising, and she's doing everything right now. She is continuously doing everything right in the room, outside the room, and she’s doing all the little things that matter.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.