Banner year for Livingston girls wrestlers

During her first two years at Livingston High, Natalie Perez would sometimes go two or three weeks without wrestling during a dual match.

It’s tough to put hours of work in the weight room and not be rewarded with a match. Other teams just wouldn’t have a girl close enough to her weight class.

“It was tough,” Perez said. “There was always the nights where the other team didn’t have enough girls in your weight. So if you wanted to wrestle, you’d have to get bumped up and wrestle a bigger girl.”

At 108 pounds, Perez can’t afford to move up too far before it becomes a mismatch.

That changed this year with the Western Athletic Conference becoming the first league in the area to offer a league dual season for girls wrestling teams.

Livingston, El Capitan, Pacheco, Los Banos and Central Valley all had at least five female wrestlers (which was what the WAC athletic directors set as the minimum to field a team) on their dual rosters.

Livingston wrapped up the first league championship with a win over Los Banos 42-30 on Jan. 27. Both teams entered the match undefeated in the WAC.

“For us as a school, it’s awesome,” said Livingston coach Alfonso Paez. “It’s the first WAC championship ever for the girls. We’ve been working toward this. The last three or four years we’ve had 18 to 20 girls, but they never had a chance to win a league championship.”

Coach Dave Mires feels his girls worked hard toward the title.

“It has given our girls at Livingston something to work towards as a team,” Mires said. “They have learned how to support each other as a team and not only as individuals.”

The formation of the league also drew more girls to the sport.

“I think it did, that along with the commitment of Alfonso Paez and David Mires,” said Livingston athletic director Scott Winton. “These two along with their staff are all in. We’ve had between 22 to 25 girls competing all year long. It mirrors the culture of involvement going on at Livingston High; of the 1,121 students at LHS, 509 of them are participating in a sport and in athletics.”

With the WAC title out of the way, Livingston will send nine wrestlers to the Sac-Joaquin Section South Regional that will begin Friday and finish Saturday at Enochs High in Modesto.

The top nine girls will advance to the Masters Tournament on Feb. 19 at McNair High in Stockton. The ultimate goal is to qualify for the CIF State Meet on Feb. 26 in Visalia.

Perez was one win shy of advancing to the state tournament last year.

“That’s been my motivation,” Perez said. “I’ve worked really hard. I’ve practiced a lot harder. I hope all that work gets me to state.”

Angelique Baptista is a sophomore who was unable to wrestle at Sac-Joaquin Section Masters last season due to an ear injury.

“My goal is to make it through regionals and go as far as I can,” Baptista said. “I am going to try my best.”

Bapista’s sister, Charla, who is a freshman, has also been a standout for the Wolves this season. The sisters started wrestling in middle school.

The sport is big in the Baptista family. Their father and brother are former wrestlers.

“Me and my sister don’t wrestle much at home,” Angelique said. “At practice, we’re workout partners. We get pretty competitive. She’s pretty feisty. She likes to wrestle me. We have a lot of fun.”

Perez and her teammates can’t wait to see the banner go up in the gym.

“It’s going to be a really great feeling to see the banner,” said Perez, who went 4-1 in the WAC duals. “I know I contributed for it to be up there.”

“When I see that banner with the year 2016, it’s going to be a great feeling,” Angelique Baptista said. “All of us earned that. Being the first girls team to win it is just amazing.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Banner year for Livingston girls wrestlers."