Norwalk wrestling teams look to build off last year’s success

NORWALK – After a successful 2021-22 season, the Norwalk High School Wrestling program is looking to repeat that success this year.

“Our wrestling programs are looking to build off of the success from the 2021-‘22 school year,” Norwalk Girls Wrestling coach Bryan DeVries said. “The boys team placed 10th in CIF out of 100 teams and the girls placed 6th in CIF out of 61 teams.”

In addition, the Norwalk boys advanced to the second round of the CIF-SS Division 5 Dual Meet Championships last year.

The Lancers opened the team duals with a narrow 42-39 first-round win over Canyon of Anaheim, but fell to Chino, 64-12 in the second round.

The Norwalk girls also qualified for the team duals last year and advanced to the second round. They opened with a convincing, 59-18 over Carter, but lost in the second round to Marina.

“The boys team is off to a good start,” Norwalk Boys Wrestling coach Frank Soto said. “We have seen some individual success with Mikey Padilla winning the Downey Invitational at 138 pounds and Sean Otero winning the Don of Dons Invitational at 145 pounds. As a team we finished fifth at the Don of Dons Invitational and we are looking to build on that and have more success.”

The Lancers are starting in the newly formed Suburban Valley Conference, Gateway League Division, with some new competition.

Receiving a state ranking of No. 37 is junior 145 Lb. wrestler Sean Otero and senior Mikey Padilla (138 Lbs.) has received an honorable mention in state rankings.

The girls were led by a program first CIF-SS No. 8 ranking by senior Zitlali Sarmiento (131 Lbs.). She has since won matches against two other higher ranked wrestlers in the Southern Section. Sarmiento looks to improve her standing.

The girls will be hosting their very first tournament this Saturday (December 17).

“We are beyond excited to have the opportunity to host a first-ever Girls Individual Wrestling Tournament at Norwalk HS this weekend (Saturday December 17),” DeVries said. “This is a clear sign of the constant progression of our program and the sport as a whole.

“We will be hosting teams from three different CIF sections - Southern Section, Central Section and L.A. Section). We are hoping for this to become a tradition for years to come. It’s our first time hosting a girls individual tournament and we are excited.”

The tournament gets underway at 9:30 am.

In addition to the boys successful start, the girls varsity has had an equally good start to the season.

The girls have placed second in the Arroyo Team Duals Tournament, while medaling eight individuals, first in the Norwalk Team Duals Tournament and while medaling eight individual girls.

They also placed third as a team at the Mater Dei Lady Monarch invitational, while medaling six individual girls including Sarmiento, (126 Lbs.), junior Casey Otero (twin sister of Sean Otero) in the 143 Lb. weight class and a second-place finish in the heavyweight class by junior Mia Farr.

“This is a sign that Norwalk is a school focused on Girls Wrestling as a team and not just ‘we have girls on the team’, as other schools sometime look at things,” added DeVries. “As a program, we look forward to growing the sport and continue to create a solid program that produces solid individuals ready for whatever comes their way on the wrestling mat or in life.”

Below are the results of the Cerritos and Mater Dei tournaments. The boys finished fifth in the Cerritos Tournament.

Cerritos Tournament - Boys

Sean Otero, 1st - 145 Lbs. (4-0); Padilla, 2nd – 138 Lbs. (3-1); senior Angel Alcantar, 3rd – 152 Lbs. (4-1) and junior Ian Wine-Borrego, 3rd – 132 Lbs.

The girls placed third (129 points) in the Mater Dei Tournament, just one point from second place El Toro. Corona Centennial finished first. Norwalk had beaten Corona earlier this past season in a dual match.

Mater Dei Tournament - Girls

Sarmiento, 1st – 126 Lbs. (5-0); Casey Otero, 2nd – 143 Lbs. (4-1); Mia Farr, 2nd – HWY (4-1); junior Ruby Hubbard, 7th 101 Lbs. (4-1); junior Alana Taylor, 9th – 116 Lbs. (4-1) and junior Amber Farr, 9th - 137 Lbs. (4-1).

In a dual Wednesday (Dec. 14), the Lady Lancers defeated John Glenn, 51-30, while the boys also won, 48-27.

In the girls win over Glenn, the Lancers had six pins, one decision and two forfeit wins. Glenn had two pins and won two matches by forfeit.

The Lancers started the match with four consecutive pins by Hubbard (106 Lbs.), sophomore Tatum Mora (108), freshman Carolina Moreno (113) and Taylor (118) for the 24-0 lead.

After a forfeit loss, the match of the evening took place between rivals Mia Ramirez of Glenn and Sarmiento in the 128 Lb. weight class. Sarmiento took a 1-0 lead in the second period with an escape and added four more points in the third with a reversal and a near fall for the 5-0 decision.

“It was a good match,” said DeVries of Sarmiento, who will become the first-ever four-year varsity wrestler for Norwalk this year. “I’m very proud of the way the girls wrestled.

This team (Norwalk) there was no question about the result after the first four events by pins.

“I’m happy to get a win over our cross-town rivals.”

The Lancers lost in a tie-breaker last year to the Eagles.

Norwalk won two more matches by pins by Amber Farr and Casey Otero for the 445-12 lead.

After three consecutive wins by the Eagles, two of which were by pins, the match ended on a forfeit win for Mia Farr in the heavyweight class.

In the boys win over JG, it was back and forth for the first four matches.

Shaun Bryant (106 Lbs.) started off with a pin and Glenn came right back to tie it at 6-6 with a pin.

After a forfeit by each team, the Eagles took their last lead, 15-12, on a decision over Ian Wine-Borrego.

It was all Norwalk after that as the Lancers gained 18 points on three of the next four matches by forfeits. In between, Angel Alcantar (152) won a 7-2 decision and at 170, Jimmy Buentello pinned his opponent for the 39-15 lead.

The two teams split the final four matches, with Manny Salas winning on a 2-0 decision in the 160 Lb. weight class to win the match by 21 points, 48-27.

“We have a good healthy core of wrestlers,” Soto said. “We were able to pull out a win.”

What they said:

Mia Farr, heavyweight, Norwalk: “As a team we are bringing a lot more competition this season. Going from my freshman year to my junior year, the talent level has really matured and we’re working well against the higher schools.

We’re kind of like the underdogs this year. I’m looking forward to league in the new league with Downey and Warren with some harder competition and going up to CIF and Masters this year.”

Zitlali Sarmiento, 126 Lbs., Norwalk: “My team is pretty solid compared to last year. This year we almost have a full lineup, which I’m very proud of and even our boys are doing very well, compared to a couple of years ago.

I think us girls can take league this year, even though we have Downey, Warren and all of these other new teams. I’m pretty confident this year and I think we can win CIF.”

Michael Padilla, 138 Lbs., Norwalk: “I think my team is solid this year on the mat and in the room. If we work as a team, we can dominate any team. Hopefully we can win our first CIF Dual Championship.

My coaches put me through hard work and last week I got second place.”

Sean Otero, 145 Lbs., Norwalk: “Our team is strong and getting better every week. I’m looking forward to winning in the new league and going to CIF and Masters.”

Frank Soto, Boys coach, Norwalk: “I look to this school year to get as many kids to CIF as possible and finish as high as we can in this brand new league. We got put into the upper bracket (Gateway), so it’s going to be a very tough league with a lot of solid teams.

We got put into that upper division because they (CIF and league) felt like that’s where we belong. It’s going to be a battle.”

Bryan DeVries, girls coach, Norwalk: “Our program is going up. We’re filling out and we get more girls every year and almost have a full lineup this year and we have JV wrestlers for the first time ever. This year we are anticipating our girls to go as far as possible. Last year we had wrestlers go to Masters for the first year ever and we expect to have wrestlers going to state soon.

We expect full teams and we expect girls to want to join wrestling and the negative stigmatism of this is a guys sport to go away. It’s something to help us grow as individuals.”