La Cañada sister duo makes run to Southern Section wrestling finals
While it may have only been their first year of wrestling, the La Cañada High sister duo of Sophie and Cheyenne Garcia certainly made quite an impact.
The girls advanced to the two-day-long CIF Southern Section Girls’ Wrestling Championship at Eleanor Roosevelt High, which concluded on Saturday.
Sophie Garcia capped a strong postseason run by finishing 2-2 in the 170-pound bracket and just missed a berth to the season-ending CIF State Girls’ Wrestling Championships at the Visalia Convention Center on Feb. 26.
“Sophie was one match away from qualifying to state, but even with that loss she had a great tournament,” La Cañada Coach Justin Luthey said. “She reached the blood round or the last qualifying round and had a tough loss, but she has nothing to be ashamed of.”
The La Cañada freshman’s run was impressive given she opened action with a 7-0 loss to Baldwin Park’s Makayla Hernandez and dropped into the consolation bracket.
Sophie Garcia rebounded with falls over Santa Paula’s Syndi Santiago and Millikan’s Isabel Gonzalez before she was pinned by Santa Ana’s Claribel Estrada. Sophie Garcia finished 10th overall, two spots out of an eight-place finish needed to advance. She will be listed as a second alternate.
She earned her trip to the Southern Section finals after a 4-1 run through the Southern Section Regional Tournament at Upland High on Feb. 6.
As for Cheyenne Garcia, the sophomore 189-pounder was also pinned in the first round by Millikan’s Cindy Romero.
Cheyenne Garcia picked up a fall against Nipomo’s Natalya Nievez in 2:34 before losing a hard-fought 2-1 contest in triple overtime to San Dimas’ Kayli Carruthers in the final match on Friday.
She advanced to the Southern Section Championship by going 3-2 and placing seventh in Upland.
“Cheyenne had a real tough match to start and still did really well,” Luthey said. “In that last one for Cheyenne, she got called for locking hands and that’s how she lost. Even with that, she should be proud.”