From left, Bloomfied senior Ahlexa Montalvo, junior Madelyn McLaughlin, and sophomores Saharia Quamina and Leanna Noel gather at the state individual championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield High School sophomores Leanna Noel and Saharia Quamina enjoyed stellar finishes at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s girls state individual wrestling championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Noel and Quamina each won fifth-place medals in their weight classes.
Competing in the 145-pound weight class in a field of 12 wrestlers, Noel won by a 9-4 decision over Angelica Ramos Qvideo of Mainland in the first round on Thursday, Feb. 29. Noel then lost to Julia Fongaro of Boonton in the quarterfinals by a 7-0 decision.
Noel regrouped with a pin in 1 minute and 20 seconds over Valeria Ramirez of Elizabeth in the second-round wrestleback and posted a 9-4 decision over Samantha Goworek of Indian Hills in the third-round wrestlebacks.
The next day, Noel lost by a 9-1 major decision to Olivia Georges of DePaul Catholic in the wrestlebacks semifinals. That put Noel in the fifth-sixth place bout on Saturday, March 2, where she won a 2-1 decision in a tiebreaker over Angelica Ramos Oviedo of Mainland Regional to finish with a 30-8 record on the season.
Quamina competed in the 235-pound weight class. After receiving a first-round bye, Quamina lost a 2-0 decision to Samantha Domask of Palmyra in the quarterfinals.
Quamina then pinned Rahkai Degrasse of North Brunswick in 3:09 in the second-round wrestlebacks.
The next day, Quamina won by an 11-1 major decision over Kayla Mena of Parsippany Hills/Parsippany in the third-round wrestlebacks, but then lost to Caroline Biegel of DePaul Catholic in the wrestleback semifinals by a 6-3 decision.
Quamina capped her run with a pin over Autumn Thame-Knox of Eastern in 5:04 to win the fifth-place medal on Saturday, March 2. Quamina finished with a 25-7 record on the season.
Bloomfield had a total of four competitors at the tournament. The others were senior Ahlexa Montalvo and junior Madelyn McLaughlin in the 120-pound and 132-pound weight classes, respectively. They each went 0-2 in the tournament. Montalvo finished 22-7 and McLaughlin went 26-7 on the season.
The four BHS wrestlers advanced to the state individual championships after finishing in the top three of their weight classes at the North Region 2 tournament at Union High School on Sunday, Feb. 25.
Photos Courtesy of Bloomfield High School Wrestling
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