“I’m sorry, what now?”
That was Keishara Tulloch’s response to her coaches after what she thought was her fourth and final match at the inaugural New York State Girls Wrestling Championships in Albany on Thursday.
Tulloch, a sophomore at Uniondale High School, had already had a heck of a day. After losing her first-round match in the 152-pound division, the county champ fought her way through the consolation bracket and thought she’d secured third place after her third win.
But then her coaches told her, no, no, you still have to win two more matches.
“I was like, ‘come on! I’m exhausted!’” she replied Friday night in a phone interview. “But you know, state championships, I had to tell myself to be strong and keep going.”
And that Tulloch did. In a pretty remarkable feat, she ended up winning five bouts in the consolation draw to snag third place, one of many LI wrestlers to grab a Top 3 finish this week.
“That’s one of the most difficult tasks in wrestling, and she did it,” said Uniondale coach Tim Godoy. “We are beyond proud of her and the whole program.”
Tulloch admitted that in her first bout, “I totally froze. Being at the states, big arena, all the attention and pressure, I couldn’t do anything out there. It was very frustrating.”
But Tulloch battled back, as did many of her Nassau teammates. MacArthur sophomore Mia Flores won her first match and kept winning until the championship round, where she lost to Peyton Mullin of Dundee H.S., with Flores finishing second.
“I was excited and nervous for the final, and then it was just a really quick pin (25 seconds) so that was really disappointing,” Flores said. “But I’m really happy that I got through to the final.”
Hicksville’s Haley Gonzales won the championship at 126 points, while Bethpage’s Gabrielle Severin was the runner-up at 114 pounds. The junior was injured for much of the season but had a great tournament.
Naomi Gonzalez of Valley Stream North also had a terrific state meet, finishing third in the 235-pound division.
For Tulloch and the other Nassau girls wrestlers competing, this year’s meet was just the start.
“All of us know we have a lot more in us and we want to get back here and win,” Tulloch said. “We believed in ourselves and knew we belonged here, and showed it. We have lots more work to do.”
The boys wrestling state tournament was held on Friday and Saturday, with Nassau wrestlers excelling as usual.
In Division 1, Long Beach’s Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez won his second state title at 116 pounds, while eighth-grader Jon Tutku of Massapequa (49-1) had an incredible run to win a state title at 101 pounds.
Glen Cove senior Giorgio Valenzuela, the county champ at 170 pounds, reached the quarterfinals at states before losing to the undefeated No.1 seed, P.J. Duke of Minisink Valley H.S. But Valenzuela recovered to work his way through the consolation draw and finish in seventh place.
In the Division 2 tournament, Nassau winners included Colton Schmiesing of Oyster Bay at 108 pounds, Luke Nieto of Plainedge at 152, and Devin Downes of Plainedge at 190 pounds.
