Ganado girls get three on the podium
Navajo Times | Quentin Jodie
Ganado’s Dosha Wortham (right) tangles with Lee Williams wrestler Madison Diaz in the 114-pound title bout at the Joseph City Invitational Saturday. Diaz earned the title with a second-period pin.
JOSEPH CITY, Ariz. – Behind three placers, the Ganado girls wrestling team took eighth at the recent Joseph City Invitational on Saturday.
The Hornets finished the two-day tournament with a team score of 88 points. Winslow won the 24-team meet with 173 points, followed by Arizona Lutheran (154), Lee Williams (140), Snowflake (115), Holbrook (98), Wickenburg (95), Page (92) and Ganado.
“Our girls team is starting to be aggressive,” Ganado coach Kevin Watchman said. “I keep telling them not to be nice when they get on the mat. They’re starting to make that transition from being nice to being aggressive.”
Due to the five-tournament limit set by the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA), the Ganado boys team did not compete last week. The Hornet boys squad is scheduled to compete at this week’s Doc Wright Invitational. The Winslow High meet starts on Friday and ends Saturday.
Watchman brought eight girls to the Joe City meet, with seniors Dosha Wortham and Lyndsay Thomas earning a pair of second-place finishes while teammate Trinity Sullivan took third.
Wortham (13-4 overall) lost the 114-pound finals to Lee Williams wrestler Madison Diaz (20-5) by a fall in the second period.
“Dosha is pretty competitive, but she got caught in a counter attack,” Watchman said. “She got caught off-guard in the two matches she lost here. Her opponent used a counter moves to put her on her back.”
In the 132 finals, Thomas went the distance with Winslow wrestler Tatum Estrada for the championship. Estrada, who improved to 19-0 overall, finished with an escape, near-fall and a pair of takedowns in a 7-1 decision.
In pool play action, Estrada beat the Ganado wrestler in a fall.
“They met again in the finals,” Watchman said. “Lyndsay took her to three periods, and she lost by a decision.”
The Ganado coach is pleased with the progression Thomas has made this season as she sports a 21-7 record.
“She’s one of my seniors,” Watchman said of his pupil. “She started the season off strong, and she’s continuing to wrestle strong. She’s placed at all the wrestling tournaments that we’ve entered.”
Earlier this season, Thomas took the Miyamura Invitational, third at both the Gallup tournament and Holbrook’s Pat Kenny Invitational and fourth at the Veterans Memorial Invitational that is hosted by Window Rock High.
In the 138-pound bracket, Sullivan placed third. She pinned Winslow’s Arora Madore in the first period.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow