2020 California Girls States Loaded with Star Performances

Silver Creek’s Nigerian-born Adaugo Nwachukwu earned her first state title at this year’s CIF Girls State Championships. Photo by Dan Glenn.

by guest columnist, Dan Glenn
with Derek Levendusky, A.W.W. staff writer
Dan Glenn is a California-based coach & photographer

BAKERSFIELD, CA - For the second straight year, the the best male and female wrestlers in California gathered under the same roof at the CIF State Wrestling Championships at the Mechanics Bank Arena. While the boys have used this arena for many years, prior to 2019, the girls had their own event which was most recently held in Visalia CA, North of Bakersfield, typically one week prior to the boys event.

The CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) has taken the experience to a new level for the girls. Though the previous event was run well, the CIF puts a lot into highlighting the finals portion of the event. The pre-finals ceremony is a remarkable display of “pomp and circumstance” while the finals put the young stars on display unlike any other state. This is, after all, California.

This year, there were approximately 448 girls who competed in the 14 weight classes, each 32-man brackets. In the end, 143-pounder Cheyenne Bowman repeated as a 3x State Champion, while four others repeated as 2x State Champions—111 Cristelle Rodriguez, 121 Jennifer Soto, 150 Lilly Freitas and 189 Alia Abushi. Four of those five girls are potential 4x State Champions.

Notable absence at this year’s event was 150-pound phenom Amit Elor.

There were plenty of upsets at this year’s event, as a number of #1 seeds were forced into consolation bracket in the first round, and at least two unseeded girls made the finals.

List of 2020 California State Champions 

101: Lizette Rodriguez (12)
106: Nyla Valencia (10)
111: Cristelle Rodriguez (10) 2x State Champion
116: Desinee Lopez (12)
121: Jennifer Soto (10) 2x State Champion
126: Adaugo Nwachukwu (10)
131: Tiera Jimerson (12)
137: Johanna Foreman (9)
143: Cheyenne Bowman (11) 3x State Champion
150: Lilly Freitas (10) 2x State Champion
160: Ariana Pereira (12)
170: America Lopez (11)
189: Alia Abushi (12) 2x State Champion
235: Julia Richey (11) 

NOTEWORTHY PERFORMANCES

 My outstanding performance goes to the unseeded 106-pound 10th grader, Nyla Valencia of Campbell CA. Nyla's opponent, 11th grader and #1 seeded Alyssa Valdivia is no slouch on the mat. As a Freshman Valdivia wrestled through a tough 116lb bracket and placed 3rd, losing only one match to the reigning champion Rory Coscia in semi-finals. After taking an entire year off Valdivia came back a lean and mean 106-pounder ready to win States. Both Valdivia and Valencia battled their way through their brackets eager to become a State Champion for the first time. From the Start though Nyla Valencia showed she was simply on a different level. She kept Valdivia on the defensive the entire match. Despite the best efforts of her opponent, Nyla Valencia became a State Champion with a final score of 11-4 and won over the crowd with a masterful performance.

Cristelle Rodriguez earned her second state title at this year’s CIF Girls State Championships. Photo by Dan Glenn.

Returning State Champion, 111lb 10th grader Cristelle Rodriguez is typically very dominant in all of her matches. This year her finals match was no different, until the very end, when her unseeded opponent, 10th grader Lexy Beadles nearly caught the champion for a major upset. Cristelle was putting on a show scoring consistently against the very scrappy Beadles, who never stopped looking for a path to victory. In the third period, Beadles hit a slick head and arm from her knees and put the Champion on her back with plenty of time to work for the fall. Rodriguez was able to fight through several tense seconds of near fall before successfully getting back to her chest. It was clear Rodriguez was a bit unnerved, but was able to keep Beadles from scoring any more points and won her second State Championship match 17-4.

Also worth mentioning is Silver Creek's 126lb Adaugo Nwachukwu, a Nigerian-born wrestler who I'm told has only been wrestling a couple of years. After placing 4th last year at 131lbs, Adaugo has been on a tear this season making a name for herself, one that is much easier to pronounce—The Nigerian Nightmare. It's clear she doesn't have the technical skill of many of the other competitors at this level, but what she does have is strength, and lots of it. The other 126-pound wrestlers had a very hard time scoring on Adaugo or even holding position. Her toughest match of the day was actually in semi-finals against Kelly Escamilla of Whittier where she won 7-3. Her strength advantage and a powerful double leg proved too much for each of her opponents. In the finals match she actually left her opponent, 11th grader Samantha Barragan of Hemet, with a nasty gash on her forehead which had to be wrapped, blood soaking through. Adaugo won the finals match 16-6.

Notable also was an all freshman finals match at 137 pounds! And this match did not disappoint unless you were Savannah Gomez (or rooting for her). It was #5 seed, Johanna Foreman of Upland who would be crowned the champion, but it didn't seem likely at first. Johanna had already put on an amazing performance at the State tournament, making it to semi-finals where she beat the #1 seed in overtime! Also making it to finals was #2 seed, Savannah Gomez who absolutely wrecked shop on her way to finals last weekend with a string of pins and major decisions. Savannah's dominance last weekend continued into the first round of her finals match against Foreman. Foreman didn't appear to have any chance against Gomez who appeared to be technically superior. After the first round, Gomez was up several points and the crowd's attention seemed to turn to the energetic boys State Finals match that was taking place on the adjacent mat. As the second period began, both girls in neutral position, Foreman threw Gomez to the mat with a very quick "nothing to lose" head and arm, putting Gomez flat on her back for the fall at 10 seconds into the second period! While it was an amazing victory for Foreman, it would be hard to bet against Savannah Gomez next year if the two were to meet again.

Cheyenne Bownman entered rare air at this year’s 2020 CIF Girls State Championships, becoming a 3x State Champion. Photo by Dan Glenn.

At 143 lbs, Cheyenne Bowman won her third consecutive State Title in an exciting and highly anticipated match against the very talented, four-time State finalist, and 2018 State Champion, Aine Drury. Bowman was able to get an impressive pin on Drury in the second period. Bowman will look to become a 4x State Champion next year!

10th grader, and returning State Champion, Lilly Freitas may have been the only finalist to not give up any points the entire tournament. Like last year, the champion just seems to dominate everyone. She did meet a very worthy opponent in surprisingly unseeded Hannah Ricioli this year in finals. Hannah also had an impressive run at States that included three pins and a close match with the #2 seed in semi-finals, where she got the upset and the opportunity to face Freitas for the 150 pound state title. Lilly Freitas was simply too much though, who had all the answers for Hannah's aggressive offense from the start and eventually secured a pin over Hannah at 1:24 into the second period. It's clear to see that Lilly is planning on adding her name to the short, but growing list, of 4x State Champions.