Junior Sonia Pegoue achieved the title of the MPSSAA Girls’ Wrestling 145 Pound State Champion at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland during the weekend of March 15 with three medals.
Pegoue faced tough opponents to achieve victory, including the number one ranked girl and a past rival of hers from La Plata, whom Pegoue fell to in the last year state finals. She defeated her last opponent from Atholthon to clinch the win.
“I’m still taking it in because I can’t believe it,” Pegoue said. “Moving forward I know I’ll have to put in more work because I want to maintain the title.”
Along with Pegoue’s success from the girls’ tournament, seniors Alex Mockel and Maddox Zuñiga had strong finishes. Mockel ended her wrestling career after being acknowledged as a region champ and county finalist. Zuñiga lost in the semifinals, then won the third place medal.
Sophomores Abigiya Asefa and Essence Clarke attended their first state tournament, although they didn’t advance far, their perseverance will continue through to next season.
“I’m very excited to see how far I’ll go,” Asefa said. “I hope to see more girls making it to states.”
During the coed tournaments, junior Daniel Gershon had dropped his second match against the returning state champion from South River HS. During his time in climbing the consolation bracket, he was defeated during his consolation finals match against an opponent ranked eighth in the state rankings from Wise HS. He finished the season with a 4th place medal.
