Eagles senior goes out with impressive resume, hoping to build on that next season at Augsburg
Coming into her second and final state wrestling meet, Kennedy senior Kelsey Cruz Rojas was more than ready to go out on the podium.
Cruz Rojas won her final high school match to place third at 148 pounds by way of a 13-7 decision against Apple Valley’s Esperanza Calvillo on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Cruz Rojas was joined by sophomore teammate Noelia Fierro (136 pounds) as the first girl to wrestle for Kennedy at state.
The girls portion of the tournament took place on Championship Saturday with quarterfinals in the morning before advancing alongside the boys with the medal rounds in the evening.
Cruz Rojas opened the day by handing Foley’s Annabelle Gutormson her first loss of the season in a 6-1 decision to advance to the semifinals.
She earned a takedown in each period for six points while Gutormson picked up a second-period escape.
Eventual state champion Skylar Little Soldier compiled a 19-0 mark including a pin of Cruz Rojas in 3:44 to reach the final.
The third-place match featured a lot of action with Cruz Rojas trailing after the opening period 3-0 thanks to a penalty and takedown by the Apple Valley wrestler. Cruz Rojas turned up the intensity in the middle period to build a 7-2 lead thanks to a pair of takedowns, a two-point near fall and an escape. She closed out the period with the second takedown with only three seconds left on the clock.
The future Augsburg College wrestler didn’t let up in the third period outscoring Calvillo 6-2 starting with an escape and takedown in the opening 13 seconds. Calvillo added a reversal before Cruz Rojas picked up her final four points over the last 54 seconds on an escape and a final takedown with 21 seconds to go to become the highest-finishing female wrestler in Kennedy High School history.
Fierro
Fierro closed out her sophomore season with a 27-10 record finishing sixth at 136 pounds. She opened with a tough draw, facing Apple Valley’s Cassandra Gonzales who went on to a perfect 30-0 record and the state championship.
Gonzales pinned Fierro in 1:18 relegating the Kennedy wrestler to the consolation bracket where she advanced to the fifth-place match after Foley’s Hattie Mathre forfeited her match.
In that final match, Fierro lost to St. Michael-Albertville’s Claire Kvant 9-6 after Fierro built a 4-1 lead with a pair of takedowns in the opening period. Kvant won the second period 8-2 thanks to a wild final 43 seconds where she scored an escape, takedown and three-point near fall to lead the match 9-6 going into the third period. A scoreless final period ended the match 9-6 in favor of STMA.
Boys
Kennedy seniors Vince Sheild-Gore and Tomasso Constantini represented the program in Class AA at 139 and 189 pounds, respectively.
Sheild-Gore (24-15) wrapped up his high school career with two matches at state including the opening match against the eventual state champion Kaden Nicholas of Becker. Nicholas, who won 50 matches this season, pinned Schield-Gore in 1:31. Since Nicholas won his quarterfinal match, Sheild-Gore was granted a consolation first-round match, losing to Hutchinson’s junior Raydon Bipes by a first-period fall. Bipes won 41 matches this season.
Constantini (15-15), a foreign exchange student from Italy, ran into a seasoned Rocori senior Mason Orth who wrapped up the tourney on the podium in fifth place. Orth pinned Constantini, a first-year wrestler, at 2:54 after building a 7-0 lead.
Logan Ross
Wrestling in a cooperative with Hopkins High School, Jefferson senior heavyweight Logan Ross went 1-2 at state to compile a 31-7 record this season. He opened with a 5-4 win over Buffalo junior Ryan Babatz. Ross scored a takedown just 21 seconds into the bout but the Buffalo opponent escaped as the opening period ended with Ross in control 2-1. After starting the second period on the bottom, Ross worked free for an escape then takedown over the final 51 seconds to lead 5-1 going into the third period. Babatz narrowed the lead to 5-3 with a reversal 49 seconds in before Ross was warned then penalized for stalling with 14 seconds to go to make it a 5-4 score.
Ross drew defending state champion Will Sather of Eden Prairie in the quarterfinals and was pinned in 1:28 as Sather went on to successfully defend his state title.
Ross won his consolation quarterfinal match against Lakeville South sophomore Mitchell Kelvie by a 10-2 decision before losing to Champlin Park’s Isiah Wright by fall at 4:41 in the consolation round two.
Wright went on to place sixth.
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