Girls Wrestling: Super sophs qualify for state
HUNTLEY — Two Huntley girls wrestlers, sophomores Janiah Slaughter and Aubrie Rohrbacher, are moving on to the IHSA State Girls Individual Wrestling Tournament.
Slaughter and Rohrbacher earned second place spots at 105 and 130 pounds, respectively, at the Schaumburg Sectional Feb. 9-10. The state meet is Feb. 23-24 at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington.
Huntley had a total of five girls compete in the two-day sectional and coach Gannon Kosowski was pleased with the effort. Huntley placed fifth in team scoring with 68 points.
“All the girls wrestled great,” the coach said.
Slaughter will be back at state after finishing third at 100 pounds as a freshman.
“Slaughter wrestled amazing,” Kosowski said. “I’ve seen some awesome improvement in the last few weeks especially when it comes to her work on top.”
Slaughter ended sectional with a 26-2 record. At Schaumburg, she won by pin twice, defeating Andrea Jaimes-Alvarez of Wheaton Warrenville-South then Averi Collella of Lockport Township to qualify for state. Nadiia Shymkiv of Glenbard East downed Slaughter in a second period pin, in 3:32.
Rohrbacher, who qualified last season for state, has achieved a 40-4 record. She won by pin twice, over Tiyanna Hart of Hinsdale Central and Elise Burkut of Wheeling to qualify for state. In the final, she fell in a 4-0 decision to Claudia Heeney of Lockport Township.
Three Red Raiders teammates won multiple matches at Schaumburg.
Freshman Grecia Garcia concluded at 27-18 in her first varsity season with three wins at sectional. She won by pin, then decision and in a thriller, gained a win by tiebreaker one over Joscelin Ritthamel of Lake Park. However, a Harvard grappler, Ithandehui Rosas, won by pin in 1:37, and the loss ended Garcia’s season.
“Garcia beat two girls she had previously lost two in her first and second rounds of wrestle backs,” Kosowski said. “She is only a freshman and I am very excited to see what she can do in the following years. She had lost to the Harvard girl earlier in the year and we knew it would be a tough match.”
Two seniors closed their careers at the Schaumburg mat.
Senior Taylor Casey, who has qualified for state in the past, began with a major decision win. After a second round loss, she posted two wins in the consolation rounds. That put her against rival Annalee Aarseth of Crystal Lake South in the consolation blood round, but Casey suffered a heart-breaker of a 6-4 SV-1 loss.
Senior Jessica Olson experienced a similar sectional at 140 pounds. She opened with a win by pin, lost by pin, then beat foes by pin and major decision for a chance for state. Natalie Corona of McHenry outlasted Olson with a pin in 3:03.
“Olson and Casey both had really tough brackets,” Kosowski said. “We knew that going into it and I could not have asked any more of either of them. I’m not sure if either of them want to continue in college, but they have helped grow the sport of girls wrestling at Huntley and it was a privilege of coaching them this year.”
