King Athletics
Travis Chell
FRANKLIN SPRINGS, Ga. – The King University women’s wrestling team had a good showing on Sunday at the Robert Horton Memorial Tournament hosted by Emmanuel College. Four individuals earned first place finishes, two took runner-up finishes and one finished third. In all, nine Tornado placed at the event.
- At 109 pounds, Samantha Larsen finished fifth, going 4-2 on the day. After falling in the quarterfinals, Larsen took back-to-back wins before another setback in the consolation semifinal, Larsen defeated Mackenzie Cruey of Life University on an 11-0 technical fall to take fifth.
- Both Melanie Mendoza and Lesly Hernandez placed at 116 pounds. Mendoza finished third going 3-1 while Hernandez went 3-3 to take sixth.
- Mendoza dropped her opening match, but came back with three straight wins, capped by an 11-6 decision over Kasey Baynon of Emmanuel to take third.
- Hernandez fell in the quarterfinals, but came back with consecutive wins before falling to Mendoza in the consolation semifinals. She then dropped the fifth place match to take sixth.
- At 123 pounds, Sophia Mirabella won all three of her matches to take the title. She topped Julia Vidallon of Life 6-4 in the final.
- Phoenix Dubose won the title at 130 pounds, going 3-0. She earned the title with a 3-2 decision over Emily Se of Emmanuel.
- At 143 pounds, Ashlynn Ortega won all three of her matches, two by technical fall and one by fall to take the title. In the championship bout she earned a 10-0 technical fall win over Morgan Norris of Presbyterian University.
- Tory Torres won her first two matches at 155 pounds, but fell to Emmanuel’s Kayla Marano 5-3 in the championship bout to take a runner-up finish.
- At 170 pounds, Nia Crosdale won her first two matches, but fell to Jordan Nelson of Life in the final to finish runner-up.
- Tavi Heidelberg-Tillotson won the title at 191 pounds with a pair of decisions. She defeated Emmanuel’s Cristina Santoyo 3-1 in the championship bout.
KING RESULTS
109 pounds – Samantha Larsen 4-2, 5th; LaStacia Cloyd 0-2, Deja Heatley 0-2
116 pounds – Melanie Mendoza 3-1, 3rd, Lesly Hernandez 3-3, 6th; Jojo Palshan 1-2
123 pounds – Sophia Mirabella 3-0, 1st
130 pounds – Phoenix Dubose 3-0, 1st
143 pounds – Ashlynn Ortega 4-0, 1st
155 pounds – Tory Torres 2-1, 2nd
170 pounds – Nia Crosdale 2-1, 2nd
191 pounds – Tavi Heidelberg-Tillotson 2-0, 1st
The Tornado are scheduled to be in action again on February 7 at Tiffin University where they will take on Adrian College, Gannon University and the host Dragons starting at 9:00 a.m.