TACOMA — Forty days ago, Centralia High School’s Ramona Reinitz was supposed to be done for the girls wrestling season.
Her elbow blew out in the third round of Braided 64 in January, one of the largest girls tournaments of the year. She had to medically forfeit the remainder of the tournament and the rest of her sophomore year was in jeopardy.
There was one caveat.
She’s a Reinitz.
“She feels like she can win anytime, anywhere,” Tigers head coach Scott Phillips said. “I know what kind of person she is and the heart she has. I had no doubt in my mind she’d find a way to be back.”
The 120-pounder donned a special arm sleeve that keeps her elbow in place and grinded her way to take third place in her weight class in Class 2A at Mat Classic XXXVI on Saturday inside the Tacoma Dome.
In her first two years of her prep career, Reinitz has secured back-to-back top-three finishes. This one was filled with emotions.
After she won her third place match – a gritty 11-3 major decision win over W.F. West’s Eden Hornby – she walked off the mat in tears. Her mind went back to the semifinal just a couple hours earlier and the heartbreak in that loss.
Once she collected herself, she was appreciative of the one-month sprint to medal.
“To be able wrestle and power through and place to-three, when I’ve only been practicing for two weeks, is pretty good to me,” Reinitz said.
When she went into the doctor, there was no sign of a clean break on the MRI and X-rays. They relayed to her that she can wrestle again in three months.
That timeline wasn’t going to fly.
“We got a really good brace where I can’t hyperextend my elbow,” Reinitz stated.
She won her first match 12-5 and opened the final day against Hornby in the quarterfinals and dominated to the tune of a 24-3 tech fall. That set up a semifinal match against Ridgefield’s Lillian Hulegaard, who would have been the matchup at districts, but Reinitz medically forfeited once her state spot was secured.
It was a first period mired in controversy.
The match was stopped for injury time as Reinitz tried to catch her breath after Hulegaard’s arm was near Reinitz’s neck. That ate up 1:55 of the allotted two minutes. On the restart, the same thing happened again and Reinitz tapped.
She laid down on the mat, spit out her mouth piece and coughed for 25 seconds. The injury time ran out and Hulegaard won.
Reinitz broke down in tears. Phillips was challenging the ruling.
“You’re not allowed to choke a person, a referee is supposed to stop it and it’s supposed to be head and neck time,” he said. “They stopped when they heard yelling. Essentially, they told me, you can legally choke someone out.”
Reinitz still was feeling the emotions afterwards.
“Didn’t really expect it to happen,” she said.
No change to the match was made after conversations with the referees, rules officials and medical team. Reinitz proceeded to record two straight bonus point wins to finish the season at 23-3. Centralia’s other medal winner was Luna Martinez-Arevalo, fifth at 100-pounds.
“You get more from your losses than you do your wins,” Reinitz said.
W.F. West’s Aurora Martin capped her prep career with a third place finish at 125. She suffered a loss in the quarterfinals, but responded with four straight pins to garner her first career Mat Classic medal.
She stated afterwards she’ll come back next winter and be a coach for the Bearcats, but for now, wrestling competitively is taking a back seat.
“It was my goal this year,” Martin said. “I love my teammates.”
Lucy Hornby (110) and Emily Mallonee (135) each recorded top-six finishes.
Black Hills had four girls reach the semifinals and all of them finished inside the top-four. Izzy Steinebach was the lone one to win her third place match, a 16-0 tech fall triumph over Clover Park’s Breanna Klein.
After not placing a year ago, the Wolves senior was able to leave this trip with some hardware.
“I had to keep reminding myself how bad I wanted it,” Steinebach said. “Place as high as I possibly can. I’m very happy with where I ended up.”
Madelyn Paine (170) and Isabella Chernard (190) placed fourth and sixth, respectively.
Down in the 1B/2B/1A tournament, Tenino’s Maleah Chacon earned a sixth place finish at 120-pounds while the Rainier duo of Keira Anderson (170) and Ryleigh Cruse (235) placed top-five. Napavine’s Makaylynn Arias (170) reached the semis and finished sixth overall in her weight class.
