No. 1 ranked women’s wrestling impress at USA under-23 trials

By: Chris Januardi Lim

At the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota, junior wrestler Dominique Parrish showed why the SFU Clan’s women’s wrestling team is currently ranked number one in the Women’s College Wrestling Association’s (WCWA) rankings. In two best-of-three matches, Parrish did not lose one point, winning her weight class at 55kg/121lbs.

Parrish entered the day as the top seed, and met Brenda Reyna of McKendree University in the semifinals. She won two straight matches, while also scoring a technical fall.

In the finals, what seemed to be a tougher test for Parrish ended in a similar fashion. The 2015 Cadet World champion Ronna Heaton was easily handled by the SFU star junior. In the first bout, she scored a technical fall securing a 10–0 win. In the second, she shut Heaton out once more, winning the match with a 8–0 second bout.

With the win, Parrish looks to continue her dominating run at the world stage, but coach Mike Jones took a more humble approach with his star wrestler.

“This was a very good performance for Dominique,” Jones commented. “It will mark her first step onto the international stage, and we really do not know what to expect from other countries at this age group. We think her very capable of competing with [the] best in the world and this is an exciting first step.”

However, SFU’s senior Francesca Giorgio, who entered as the number three seed, did not end the trials as triumphant, losing in the quarterfinals. Prior to the trials, Giorgio had just began her road to recovery from her injury, and did not get enough time to get fully fit. Coach Jones will look to get Giorgio healthy again for her senior year.

“Fran has been on injured list and did not have good lead-up to trials,” Jones said. “These nagging injuries have been a major impediment to her competitive career and we hope that we can get to a point where we can compete healthy in the spring!”

Another senior, Mallory Velte, was also a top pick at her weight class, but decided to sit out the trials due to a busy schedule, as she just returned from the Senior World Championships in Paris.

These are exciting times for Parrish as she looks to represent her country in the world championships.

“I feel like I wrestled well, which is more important to me than winning,” Parrish said. “I’m stoked I get to go compete at [the] worlds in Poland.”

Be sure to follow Dominique Parrish’s road to winning the under-23 world championships from November 21–26 as she travels to Bydgoszcz, Poland.