Cody Merrill and Jennifer Soto treated the CIF State Wrestling Championships like a business trip. Get in, accomplish the tasks, and if they met their goals, do a little celebrating afterward.
That’s exactly what the two Gilroy High standouts did as they took home state titles—Merrill in the boys 195-pound division and Soto in the girls 126-pound weight class—at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield on Feb. 26.
“Now that my high school career is over, I did what I was supposed to do, and it felt good,” said Soto, who became the sixth girl in the CIF girls championship 10-year history to win three state titles. “I was super happy I got to finish my high school career the way I wanted, with a third state title. I wanted that result and knew I could get it.”
Said Merrill: “I’m just happy I came out on top, being dominant and just happy to bring something home for Gilroy.”
Merrill and Soto highlighted the Mustangs’ performance, which saw the girls team finish second, an all-time best for the program. The boys team finished in ninth place. Other top finishers for the Gilroy boys included Isaiah Cortez (third at 106 pounds), Elijah Cortez (third at 113) and Donte Lopez (eighth at 138). Other top girls finishers included Kaiulani Garcia, who was the runner-up at 160 pounds, and Valerie Glenn, who took eighth at 121. Top-flight wrestlers are known for being extremely disciplined, and Gilroy’s team is no exception.
That’s why coach Daniell Cormier treated them to a feast after the state championships at Raising Cane’s, a renowned fried chicken eatery in Bakersfield.
“Coach gave me a whole tray, 20 pieces of Cane’s chicken,” Merrill said.
Said Soto: “D.C. bought a whole lot of chicken and everybody enjoyed it.”
As expected, Merrill ran roughshod over the competition, recording pins in 40, 35 and 64 seconds, respectively, with a 17-4 major decision victory sandwiched in between en route to the title match against Palm Desert’s Sonny Kling. The 5-0 decision over Kling brought back sweet memories for Merrill as the two last faced off in a USA Wrestling Kids state championship around five to six years ago.
“It was pretty nostalgic in a way,” he said.
Merrill was in complete control and perhaps wrestled a bit more conservatively than he normally does given it was the championship match. He was also well aware Kling could score points if there was even the slightest of openings.
Merrill never gave him one, though.
“I made sure to control the match,” he said. “Whether it was a (pin) fall or not, I didn’t want him scoring a point. I’d rather be on top of him for the full six minutes rather than opening up an opportunity for him to score. I missed a couple of opportunities for back points, but I was excited and happy to win because I worked so hard throughout the season. It was something special and in that moment I was full of great emotion.”
The way Merrill wreaked havoc in his weight class is the exception to the rule. Each division winner usually gets tested at least once, if not two times. Such was the case for top seed Soto, who was in deep against unseeded Loretta Lopez of Elk Grove in the quarterfinals.
Soto trailed 2-0 entering the second period before scoring on a takedown to level the match. However, Lopez scored on an escape to take a 3-2 lead heading into the third and final period. Lopez chose bottom position and Soto let her up so she would have more time to go on the offensive and score points.
Trailing 4-2 and with her state three-peat on the line, Soto dug deep and threw Lopez which led to a pin with 22 seconds left in the match.
Despite the close call, Soto insisted she wasn’t worried in the least bit.
“There was no panic and I had no doubt in my mind I could come back and win,” she said. “I wasn’t really worried about being able to score points because I started off the match way too excited and once I calmed down, I knew I could take her down which I did.”
Soto recorded a quick win via pinfall in the semifinals before facing off against a familiar foe in the final: Palo Alto’s Ella Jauregui, whom Soto had beaten three times already this season, including a week earlier in the Central Coast Section Championships.
Naturally, the fourth and final contest between the two turned out to be the closest, with Soto winning, 2-1. Soto scored her two points when she utilized a single to the right hand side and switched to a double. Jauregui answered with an escape and Soto chose bottom position to start the third period, up by a point.
In the final two minutes, Jauregui was unable to turn Soto, who held on for the victory.
“No, it wasn’t nerve-wracking, because I’ve been there before and knew I had to stay calm and collected,” Soto said. “I knew it was a good spot for me because my brother was the one who told me to choose bottom.”
Merrill and Soto are taking a couple of weeks off before starting another block of heavy training in efforts to earn a spot on the U.S. team for the World Team Trials this spring. Merrill has a goal to make the U.S. team in both freestyle and Greco roman, which would improve upon his third- and fourth-place finishes in those events from last year.
Three years ago, Soto earned a bronze medal in freestyle in the U15 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. This time, Soto plans on earning gold.
“Having D.C. help me along with preparing a lot better (will be key),” she said. “There are a lot of different (wrestling) styles in different parts of the world, and it’s about getting used to the way the Japanese and Ukrainians wrestle and advancing my technique.”
Merrill knows what he has to do to reach his goal of becoming the top-ranked wrestler in the nation.
“I need to develop a little more both in my wrestling and in the weight room,” he said. “Technical-wise, I just need more mat time and time in the weight room to get a little bigger and stronger because those guys I’m going to compete against at the senior level are pretty strong.”
Even though Merrill never likes it when he loses, he knows it serves a purpose to humble him and drive him to improve. At the prestigious Super 32 last October—one of if not the toughest wrestling competition in the country—Merill missed weight by 0.6 pounds and thus had to be bumped up a weight class and competed at 182.
Merrill won his first three matches before losing 8-2 to the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals followed by a forfeit loss in the consolation bracket.
“I’ll say it, I got handled pretty good,” he said. “I was a little undersized, but after that it got me powered up for the next tournament for sure.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at [email protected]
