In the first year with girls’ wrestling being divided into two classes, Park Hill had three make it to championship matches – with Angelina Vargas and Allison Gonier both winning it all – to finish in eighth place at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 25.
Coming off a fourth-place finish a season ago with 60 points in Class 1, the Lady Trojans scored more this go-round and were in a tight race to end in the top-6 in Class 2. Park Hill scored 73 points – one point behind Fort Osage – and trailed sixth-place Lafayette (Wildwood) by four points.
Vargas entered her sophomore season as the reigning state champion in the 115-weight class and she defended her title this year. The 2-time state champion pinned her first three opponents of the tournament before capping off the year with her 40th win in 41 tries.
Vargas had a similar record last year, 39-1, and at the halfway point of her high school career is on pace to be a 4-time champion. The sophomore opened up the Class 2 State Tournament with a 3:31 win by fall over Chaire Perks (Rockwood Summit) and followed that up with another in 40 seconds against Adeline Cottongim (Lebanon).
With those two victories, Vargas advanced to the second day and started with a 1:27 pin over Audrey Scherer (Lindbergh) to clinch her second straight trip to a state championship match. In a matchup with Kailey Benson (Francis Howell Central) – who Vargas pinned in 52 seconds in last year’s semifinals – the Lady Trojan was in a competitive match, before pulling out a 6-0 decision and collecting another gold medal.
For the second straight season, Park Hill sophomore Angelina Vargas won a state championship in the 115-weight class.
Gonier was the other Lady Trojan to stand on the first-place podium, which was a first for the sophomore. In her freshman season – which was also the first season she wrestled – Gonier ended with a 39-6 record and in third place in the 120-weight class.
With another season of experience, Gonier improved and found her way to the championship match against Liberty’s Julia Breeden. The final match of the season in the 120-weight class went down to the wire with the Lady Trojan coming out with a 3-2 decision victory.
The Park Hill sophomore won three of her four matches by close decision with 5-3 and 6-5 being the scores of two of the opening three matches. In the quarterfinals, Gonier pinned Holt’s Lily Steigerwald in 4:28 before going on to finish the winter with a 40-3 season and her second consecutive state medal.
It took Eve Herlyn (145) three tries, but the senior finally made it to the championship match after two consecutive seasons with a fifth-place medal. Unfortunately for Herlyn, Park Hill South senior Maddie Kubicki – who is the best wrestler in the country and has never lost a high school match – was the opponent waiting for her in the first-place match and won by fall in 2:25.
The Lady Trojan sophomore started opening day of her third state trip with a 10-1 major decision victory over Haylee Fort from Waynesville and a 4-2 decision triumph against Scarlette Maier from Ladue Horton Watkins. On the first match of the second day, Herlyn defeated Louise Juitt from Belton with a 4-2 decision in the semifinals.
Park Hill sophomores Ava Myers (105), Rylin Beatty (135) and Bryanna Priest-Tapia (190) also made it to state, and all fell short of making it past the first day. Myers and Priest-Tapia both went 0-2, but Beatty walked away with one victory on the weekend.
In her first match, Beatty pulled out a 7-2 decision win over Mari Blumenthal (Marquette). The Lady Trojan was pinned by Ashlan Thompson (Willard) in 1:54 and Ericka Washom (Joplin) pulled out a 2:54 win by fall to end Beatty’s season with nine losses on 38 matches.
Myers ended 21-10 on the season after losing by a pair of decisions in state against Seckman’s Andrea Karagiannis and Lebanon’s Lillian Cottongim. Priest-Tapia was pinned by Wentzville Liberty’s Caroline Ward in 59 seconds and Waynesville’s Yisel Perez in 34 seconds.