Girls join Big Show at state wrestling: ‘I’m used to smaller crowds than this’

First, there was the thud of shoulder blades against the foam canvas.

Then came the echoing ooh of a pin-thirsty crowd, chased by the slap of a referee’s hand on the mat.

Thousands of high school wrestling fans announced their approval. Welcome to the Big Show, Ashley Venegas.

“It’s really different,” said Venegas, a Mount Whitney High senior wrestler who reached

the finals of the California Wrestling State Championships. “I’m used to smaller crowds than this. This is a lot bigger.”

Venegas and the rest of California’s best girls wrestlers shared the LED-lit stage with the boys at the CIF State Championships for the first time this weekend at Rabobank Arena, where the finals played out in front of a three-day count of 24,409 wrestling fans.

Buchanan freshman Cristelle Rodriguez was the Central Section’s lone girls state champion, winning the 101-pound title. Venegas was the other finalist, and took second at 121.

“Being around all of these wrestlers, I’m inspired,” said Monache’s Charlotte Kouyoumtjian, who pounded her way to a third-place finish at 116 pounds with four pins. “It makes me want to get better.”

As it is, these girls are proving to be better enough to hold their own in the spotlight.

California high school girls wrestling didn’t have a state meet until 2011, and has played out in the smaller Visalia Convention Center. Fewer teams with fewer wrestlers made for smaller crowds of coaches, athletes and first of kin.

This was Venegas’ fourth state tournament. It’s nothing short of a dream come true.

“Finally,” she said. “I’m really excited about coming here after all those years in Visalia. We’re different genders, different techniques, but we come together for the love of the sport.”

It’s no wonder, then, that one girl after the next got wide-eyed the first few times they stepped into The Tunnel. That’s where upcoming wrestlers are queued up in a line underneath the stands before their bout and mat number is called.

That’s where they get a first glimpse of the 10,400-seat arena, with thousands of fans filling theater-style seats on four sides and two decks. Before then, they are pacing in a waiting area called The Pit. While Venegas and Kouyoumtjian waited their turn, they were surrounded by nationally ranked wrestlers like Tristan Lujan of Selma and Maximo Renteria of Buchanan.

No girls’ side or boys’ side. Just one angry-looking mob of wrestlers hopping in place and swaying to ear-phoned jams.

Their goal, one and all: leave the biggest wrestling audience of the year thoroughly entertained.

We’re talking about an audience that roars over full-body throws, screams for overtime matches, and has an insatiable appetite for unranked-on-ranked upsets.

“It’s really nerve-racking,” said Kouyoumtjian, who stood on her tippy-toes to see over the headgears in front of her in the tunnel. “It gets me nervous every time before I wrestle. I’ve wrestled in front of big crowds of people before, but this is different.”

The merged tournaments aren’t without drawbacks. State officials expanded the tournament to a third day, starting on Thursday for the first time in state tournament history.

One side effect: wrestlers have to make the cut at three straight days of weigh-ins, which poses physical challenges to students who are accustomed to only making weight twice on a weekend.

The earlier weigh-in eliminated a No. 2 seed from the Central Section, who missed weight by a few tenths of a pound on Thursday. Another concern moving forward is how to maintain room for both tournaments as the girls’ sport – and bracket – grows in the coming years.

Also, with multiple championship finals going on simultaneously, it takes away some of the spotlight from the final contenders. Think of it like a girls’ and boys’ basketball final happening at the same time inside the same arena.

Selma wrestling coach Sam Lopez can live with it for now. He sees the positives of watching state qualifiers from both his teams compete at the same time.

“I’m cool with it, because I’ve got boys and girls here,” Lopez said. “It’s all wrestling to me.”

LINK: Final results and brackets

This story was originally published February 22, 2019 at 7:06 PM.