Sacramento City College women’s wrestling team has captured the championship of the Big 8 conference with an undefeated 8-0 record in conference matches and had strong performances that sent the team to the state championship.
By capturing the conference title in two consecutive years and with improved results in the state championship, City College has shown it is not new to successful college wrestling.
“We had a very historic weekend. Placed third as a team in the state (highest placement in the women’s program history), Northern California regional champions, 7 Individual place-winners, three All-Americans, and I was voted head coach of the year for the state. In a separate event assistant coach Walt Ulrich was also inducted into the California wrestling Hall of Fame,” head coach Marques Gales said in an email sent to the Express after the championships results.
Gales completed his 7th year coaching at City College. He is the head coach for both the women’s and men’s teams at City College.
Looking back on the season Gales remembered the close calls, “There were a few close matches in there, Santa Rosa, was the difference of one match. Fresno was the difference of one or two matches.” But we really showed resilience when our backs were against the wall.”
Gales also described how close the Santa Rosa match was. “One of the most clutch matches throughout the whole run was sophomore Zion Green against Santa Rosa. She was put on her back, an inch away from being pinned but she kept fighting off her back and getting the win. And that was a difference in us beating Santa Rosa. So that was huge.”
Before the state championship took place, Gales had his eye on higher goals.
“We are pretty dominant in Northern California,” Gales said. “We know it’s an accomplishment we enjoy, but at the same time, the toughest wrestling at the end of the day is in Southern California, so we want to be a little bit more competitive in the state championship.”
The 3C2A state Women’s wrestling championship took place at Fresno City College on Friday, May 1st with 20 teams competing for the team championship as well as individual championships in 11 weight classes. The Sac City Panthers finished 3rd overall falling behind powerhouses Cerritos college and Mt. San Antonio College.
Individual Sac City wrestlers that placed in the top three of their weight class in the State Championship included Karissa McDaniel, Brenaye Stubbs and Grace Mercado.
