RIO RANCHO — For three rounds of the New Mexico state wrestling championships, Natalie Romero looked unbeatable as she pinned opponent after opponent.
The Pojoaque Valley High School sophomore rolled into Saturday’s 138-pound finals looking great until facing top seed Laura Almanza of Deming.
“Definitely there were a lot of feelings. A lot of nerves,” Romero said of wrestling in the last match of the season. “But the sooner it was coming, I was getting more excited. I wanted to go out there and win or lose try my hardest.”
It seemed that, would be enough as after the first period, it looked like more of the same as she held a 3-2 lead following an early take down.
But Romero ran out of steam in the second period, trailing 9-4 and she could not recover her form, eventually losing the decision 11-4. In the process, however, she became the Elkettes first top-three finisher.
“She had a heck of a season,” first-year Pojoaque coach Jacob Jiron said. “To go from not even placing last year to finishing state runner-up is really something.”
Romero finished the season with a 27-4 record, including 25 pins.
“I had a lot of fun,” she said. “I was pretty disappointed, but I had a lot of fun. I never wrestled this girl so it was definitely something new. I was kind of scared and nervous for it, but I didn’t panic. It was a lot of fun to be there.”
Despite her youth, Jiron described Romero as a team leader for both the boys and girls, primarily because of her work ethic.
“She’s at practice every day, giving it her all,” he said. “And when Natalie gets ahold of me in the wrestling room, it’s like wrestling no other. I can tell you that.”
While she was the only Pojoaque girl to earn a spot in the meet, Romero put on quite the show.
“She really honed her skills, her take down and her top game,” Jiron said. “She was able to take people from their feet to their back in one move. She’s honestly good all around.”
Given the huge strides she made in this first year under Jiron, he’s expecting even bigger things coming up.
“She has a very bright future,” he said.
As a matter of fact, that disappointing finish last season helped fuel her success this season.
“A lot of it was practice and the work I put in the off season and in the season,” Romero said. “Trusting in my training and my coaches. Giving it my 110% all the time, trying my hardest. Losing last year in the blood rounds made me realize what I need to do to get where I wanted to be and wipe that taste from my mouth.”
EVHS girls
The other girls, however, did not fare as well, with both Española Valley entrants losing their first two matches.
“It was a rough day,” Sundevils coach Gilbert Sandoval said of Friday’s performance for half-sisters Alessandra Sanchez at 120 pounds and Jazlynn Maestas at 100 pounds.
Sanchez, a senior, was hampered by arm and elbow injuries, but she did not want to miss the tournament, Sandoval said.
“She’s such a hard worker and she did not want to give up the season,” he said. “Normally with the injury, she wouldn’t even go into the state tournament, but she wanted to finish out her season as best she could. That’s how we ended up. It’s heartbreaking.”
It was obvious that Sanchez was struggling and at one point in the first match, it was stopped and she was treated on the mat before being able to finish.
“She was only about 50%,” Sandoval estimated. “Any other time if she’s 100%, I have complete confidence that she would have placed in the state tournament. At the end of the day, we did our best with what we were dealing with.”
Still, her days on the mat may not be done as Sanchez has drawn some interest from small colleges in Iowa.
As for Maestas, Sandoval said the moment may have been a bit much.
“She just had a bad day,” he said. “It was unfortunate that it came at the state tournament, but she just seemed kind of off being in the big show for the first time. I definitely expect big things to come in the future. She is definitely a force to be reckoned with.”