Every time that the W.F. West and Aberdeen girls wrestling teams have met over the last several years, it has been a close, competitive match. W.F. West’s senior night proved to be no different on Tuesday, when W.F. West narrowly topped Aberdeen 42-41.
Before the dual, the Bearcats honored their four seniors: captain Berkeley Varick, captain Eden Horny, Gale Steiner, and Yasmine Azcunaga. All four seniors wrestled all four years of high school, and coach Matt Patana said that all four “worked hard to help continue building the program and mentoring the younger wrestlers each year.”
“Their contributions and leadership have been a huge part of the growth of the team this season,” Patana said.
After the two teams swapped forfeits to begin the dual, Aberdeen took the next two matches to take an 18-6 lead.
At 115, Lucy Hornby worked her way to a 14-0 lead before pinning her opponent, and Varick and Eden Hornby followed with back-to-back pins at 120 and 125 to give the Bearcats a 24-18 lead.
Sierra Wood battled tough at 130 before coming up on the short side of a tech fall, making it 24-23.
Kya Homan picked up a pin at 135 to extend the lead before Steiner dropped a competitive match at 149, and Lilly Gage and Emma Servey picked up pins at 145 and 155 to make it 42-29. Those two pins secured the team victory with two matches to play.
Both Payton Schmidt (170) and Azcunaga (190) wrestled up a weight class to help the Bearcats cover as many weights as possible, and they both wrestled tough in back-and-forth matches before falling.
“Wrestling Aberdeen is always a battle,” Patana said. “They’re a tough, well‑coached team, and last night we were fortunate to edge them out. We’re lucky to have a program like theirs pushing us to be better every time we wrestle. It’s awesome to send these four great seniors out with a team win in their final dual. Wish they could have all individually collected a win, but they all battled to the final whistle, which is what we ask for from all our athletes. They set a great example for our other wrestlers and I hope they know how much we’ve appreciated their effort and leadership.”
The team is back in action as one of the participants of the first-ever WIAA State Duals Championship this Saturday in Othello.
