2 weeks Ago By Matt Miller
FAIRFIELD — The Sacramento City College women’s wrestling team will be competing in the state championship on Saturday in East Los Angeles with a strong contingent of athletes from the Fairfield area. Armijo High School graduate Ashlee Gutierrez is the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 131 pounds.
Gutierrez is 17-3 this season and undefeated against junior college wrestlers. Armijo’s Karissa McDaniel is ranked No. 3 in the state at 103 pounds.
Grace Mercado of Armijo is ranked No. 8 at 207 pounds. Others from the Fairfield area competing include Armijo’s Amber Byrd at 124 pounds and Shelby Banovitz of Rodriguez, also at 124 pounds.
The Panthers went 9-1 overall this season in dual meets, including 6-0 in the Big 8 Conference. Armijo graduate Marques Gales continues to build a pipeline of talent from his alma mater and other schools in Solano County as the head coach of the Sacramento City College men's and women's wrestling teams. The Armijo High School wrestling pipeline at Sacramento City College also includes assistant coaches Lawrence Saenz and Darius Levan.
The California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) championship will be held at East Los Angeles College. Back-to-back state champions and No. 1 ranked Cerritos will enter as one of the favorites.
One of their biggest challengers will be the No. 2 ranked Mt. San Antonio Mounties.
In their first season of competition, Skyline College ended the regular season as the No. 3 ranked team. Rounding out the top five are the East LA Huskies, who placed third in state last season, and the fourth place team in last year's tournament, Sacramento City.
Wrestling starts at 9 a.m. The Panthers concluded their regular-season on April 5 at the Pack tournament hosted by East Los Angeles College.
The event served as the team's final tune-up before the Panthers' return to East Los Angeles for state. The Panthers amassed 60.5-team points on the day to finish fourth in a 12-team field.
Leading the effort was Gutierrez , the tournament champion at 131 pounds. Gutierrez advanced to the tournament finals by way of a 10-0 technical superiority victory in the quarterfinals and a fall in the semifinals. In the finals, she dispatched Zitlali Sarmiento of Mt.
San Antonio College, 8-0, in a matchup of state title contenders. McDaniel ( 103) was a tournament runner-up. She won her semifinal via fall to set-up yet another meeting with Big 8 Conference rival Graciela Caro of Skyline College.
In the finals, McDaniel led 2-1 at the half, but couldn't hold-off Caro in the second period, ultimately losing via 5-2 decision..
