Seven Folsom wrestlers compete in nationals

Folsom had seven wrestlers compete in the NHSCA National Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia and four returned home as All-Americans. Four of the seven wrestlers placed in the top-eight for their respective weight class and division in the biggest high school tournament in the country with more than 5,000 wrestlers. Many brackets were 128-man or even 256-man in some cases. Pia Hill had an outstanding tournament and led the way by reaching the national finals in the girls division at 100 pounds in a bracket that featured 84 girls from all over the country. She came in as a #13 seed in the weight, and far outperformed her seed by rolling through her bracket to reach the finals. Hill began by pinning her opponents from New Hampshire and Virginia in the first two rounds, and then followed that up with a 18-0 technical fall over the next girl from New Mexico. In the round of 16, Hill took out the No. 4 seed who was a Kentucky state champion by an 8-3 score. In the quarterfinals, Hill found herself needing one more win to place and assure All-American status. She continued to roll along, beating her foe from Florida with another technical fall, this time by a 19-3 score. In the semifinals, she faced off against the No. 1 seed from New Jersey, who was a Pan-Am champion and a state champion. It was a close match with Hill trailing 2-0 in the third round before she put her on her back and secured the pin to reach the national finals. Hill would suffer a defeat to the national champ in her last match, but she became Folsom's first wrestler (male or female) to reach the National Championship match since 2019 when current Folsom High girls' wrestling coach Desinee Lopez accomplished the same feat. Hill was not Folsom's only female wrestler to place at nationals. Annika Scott made her mark on the national scene by placing seventh in her bracket featuring 70 girls at 120 pounds. She also got off to a great start, as she pinned her first three opponents from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio respectively, to reach the quarterfinals. In that match she lost to the No. 4 seed from Missouri so she would have to win her next match to place in the top-8 and become an All-American. Scott wasted no time the next morning, as she pinned another Pennsylvania wrestler in the "blood round" to advance and assure herself a spot on the podium. After suffering a tough one-point loss to the eventual sixth-place finisher, Scott finished her tournament in style by pinning her opponent from Texas to get the seventh-place medal. Scott came in unseeded but came away as an All-American, marking the first time Folsom High has ever had two female All-Americans in the same year. Folsom High had one other wrestler place at Nationals, and that was Rocky Ortiz. Ortiz wrestled in the 195-pound freshman division and was able to finish in sixth place. Ortiz reached the quarterfinals before losing to the No. 2 seed and eventual champion from New Jersey. Like Scott, Ortiz found himself in the "blood round" where if you win you place and if you lose you are eliminated and come away empty handed. Ortiz also came through when it mattered most and nearly teched his opponent to get into the medal rounds, winning by a 15-1 score over his opponent from Indiana. He then followed that up with a pin over a wrestler from North Carolina to advance into the top-6. Ortiz lost by a 7-3 score to the No. 4 seed from Virginia and then lost another regular decision in his last match to finish in sixth. Ortiz became the first freshman All-American from Folsom since current FHS assistant coach Lorenzo De La Riva did it in 2012. The fourth All-American came from the Mad Dawg Wrestling Club, as Tyson Jones placed fifth in the middle school division at 127 pounds. Jones cruised through his 128-man bracket to reach the semifinals before dropping a heartbreaker by a 7-6 score to deny his shot at the finals. After another loss in the consolation semifinals to the fourth-place finisher, Jones responded with a 16-0 technical fall in his fifth-place match. Jones went 5-2 overall to reach All-American status. Folsom nearly had a fifth All-American as two-time state placer Orion Hill had a 256-man bracket and finished in the top-12, one win shy of reaching the podium. Hill won his first three matches of the 138-pound Junior division to reach the round of 16 where he dropped a 2-0 decision to the No. 7 seed from Kansas. Hill then dropped down to the consolation bracket, where he scored a pin and a 10-0 major decision to reach the blood round. Hill's placing match was not without controversy, as he appeared to have a 4-2 lead heading into the third round, but a video review reversed the scoring and had him back to being down 2-0 after the second round. Hill ended up dropping that match by a 8-3 score, but the video review changed the whole dynamics, and it was later found out that the review should have never occurred. Despite Hill's disappointment of not placing in the top eight, he still went 5-2 in one of the toughest and deepest brackets in the entire tournament and showed he is right there with the best in the country. Besides the Hills, another pair of siblings made the trip to Virginia, as Jordan Yi-Berg competed in the 106-pound freshman division, while older brother Kai wrestled in the 145-pound senior bracket. Jordan went 5-2 to finish in the top-16 in the country, with his only losses coming to a wrestler from Rhode Island, who ended up in the top-12, and to the No. 6 seed, a New York state placer who ended up finishing on the podium in seventh place. This was another 256-man bracket, one of the largest in the entire event. Kai scored a 14-4 major decision in his first match in the championship bracket before dropping his next two and being eliminated from the event.