Michele Gavilanes and Aitana Lozano came to Atlantic City for the NJSIAA Girls Wrestling State Championships with a chip on their shoulder and a mission to prove that they are among the very best at their respective weight classes.
They returned home with medals, showing without a shadow of a doubt that they are in a truly elite group of wrestlers.
Gavilanes, Nutley’s star sophomore, had the best finish in program history when she took third place at 145 pounds. Lozano, Lyndhurst-North Arlington’s senior standout at 100 pounds, finished her career with a seventh place showing.
“I definitely felt like even before they gave me the 11 seed, that because it’s my senior year, I had to leave a mark because I’ve been in the program for so long and I just felt like it was my last time to really prove myself and put myself out there,” said Lozano. “And then when I got the 11 seed, I just had to show that the seating really didn’t matter and that it was really just showing what I can do.”
Added Gavilanes, “this year I had to prove to everyone and especially myself that I belong up there with the best girls in New Jersey.”
Gavilanes, who didn’t medal in her Atlantic City debut as a freshman, returned this year as a five seed. On Thursday, she quickly proved this time would be different, starting with a pin over Autumn Connolly of North Hunterdon in just 1:19 in the first round before defeating Immaculata’s Taylor Thiele in the quarterfinal by a 12-5 decision to clinch a medal and avenge an earlier loss at the Lady Minutemen Tournament.
“When the brackets came out, we were extremely pleased with our spot. And she was focused,” Nutley head coach Mike DiPiano said. “We had a great game plan. She stuck to it and she dominated the match (against Thiele). It was a fantastic match. It was one of the best matches she’s wrestled in her career and it was a great win for her.”
Friday started with Gavilanes dropping an 11-4 decision to Buena’s Shea Aretz in the semifinals. Without much time to regroup, Gavilanes had to go back out there for the wrestleback semifinals and pinned Cliffside Park’s Ashley Bernal in 1:20.
Gavilanes’ season ended on Saturday when she defeated Thiele again in the third place match with an 8-4 decision.
The victory concluded the best finish a Nutley girl has ever had in the state tournament and capped off an incredible 44-5 season.
“While I am very happy with the outcome of this weekend, it doesn’t stop here,” said Gavilanes, who already has a busy freestyle season planned for this spring. “There are more goals I’d like to accomplish now, moving into freestyle.”
Lozano, making her first trip to Atlantic City, got an extra bit of motivation when she was awarded the 11th seed in the 16 wrestler field. She quickly turned heads on Thursday when, in her first round match, pinned Eastern’s Brooke Pettet at 5:01.
“I had to go and show that the seeding really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. And if I wanted it bad enough, I was going to get it,” Lozano said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match, but when I won it made me feel like I did belong there.”
Lozano lost in the quarterfinals by tech fall to Gabriela Giacone of Watchung Hills, but her tournament wasn’t over.
On Friday, in the second round of wrestlebacks and a spot on the medal stand on the line, Lozano was matched up against a very familiar foe in Nutley’s Izzy Timonera in a rematch of the District 3 final. Like the first matchup, Lozano won by major decision.
“That was a really tough one because me and Izzy got really close because of the sport,” said Lozano. “We have been in this since freshman year together. We wrestled definitely over 20 times during our whole high school experience. So when I knew that I had to wrestle her for the spot, it was a little heartbreaking, but I just went in there knowing that if I didn’t win that match, then that was it. That was over and everything that I had worked for was going to be gone.”
Lozano lost in the next round to Lydia Bagley of Delaware Valley by decision, before finishing her career on Saturday with a 7-3 decision of Delsea’s Karleigh Six in the seventh place match.
“I think she just needed to prove to herself,” Lyndhurst head coach Matt DeMarco said. “(Sometimes we had to tell her), ‘Atana, you’re just as good. You belong with all these other girls that ended up on the podium.’ I think this weekend was just a true testament to her wanting to show herself and everyone else how good she actually really is.”
The biggest winner locally on the girls side was Bloomfield’s Saharia Quamina, who put the finishing touches on a perfect 39-0 season by pinning Giovanna Farrell-Byers at 2:36 to win the 235 pound title. Freshman Adrienne Rodriguez also medalled for the Bengals, taking sixth at 107 pounds.
While not medaling, Nutley’s Izzy Timonera finished her career with a school record 98 wins after going 1-2 at 100 pounds. Bloomfield’s Lesley Sanchez went 1-2 as she was denied in her quest for her second medal at 185 pounds. Lyndhurst-North Arlington’s Leia Lumba (145 pounds), and Kearny’s Aralyn Hernandez (132) both were in 0-2 in their first state championship experience.
On the boys side, Nutley’s AJ Maiden was 1-2 at 165 pounds, giving him 99 career wins heading into his senior year. Fellow junior Nolan Brewer overcame a first round loss at 285 by winning consecutive wrestleback matches before having his tournament run end with a 2-2 record.
Kearny junior Matthew Pagan went 1-2 at 113 pounds, ending a stellar season while his teammate, sophomore Izael Moya lost both of his matches at 175 pounds.
Learn more about the writer ...
Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)