Socorro sophomore Jada Castillo recovered from a tough opening-round match to take third place.
Glen Rosales | For El Defensor Chieftain

 

RIO RANCHO – For Socorro’s Castillo sisters, Saturday’s girls state wrestling championships represented something of a beginning and an ending, with similar results.

Both sophomore Jada Castillo and senior Shaydan Castillo lost their opening-round match. But both fought back through the consolation rounds to earn third-place medals.

That helped the Warriors record 35 points and get a tie for seventh place with Cibola.

With just five wrestlers, Socorro was only 18 points out of third place and a trophy.

“We need some more girls in the upper weight classes to come out so we can fill out the roster,” coach Joel Partridge Jr. said. “We do pretty good in the lighter weights, but we need more upper weights. We want to bolster our roster and make our team, more competitive.”

With Shaydan Castillo, as well as fellow senior Chailynn Amaro graduating, the Warriors will be scrambling for more ladies, he said.

“Losing Shaydan and Chailynn, they’re the girls team captains,” Partridge said. “They did a great job for us all year long leading this young girls team.”

Still, seeing Shaydan Castillo recover from her tough opening-round match to get a medal was most rewarding, he said.

“Shaydan’s win was awesome,” he said. “I loved every minute of it. She hasn’t had the success that her younger sister has had. Jada has always experienced success. She’s always had a pretty fair amount of it wrestling and she works hard. Shaydan hasn’t always had that same success. She still has the same work ethic. She works hard, but it just doesn’t come as easy.”

Shaydan said she credited Amaro with pushing her through to the finish.

“I was pretty hurt, but things happen,” she said of her opening-round loss. “At that point, Chailynn told me to ‘Keep your head up and go for the next best thing.’ It’s not that you let yourself down, but you have to keep fighting as a team so you have to keep your head in there.”

Likewise, Amaro was there for the younger Castillo.

“I talked with Chailynn and she helped me realize that even if I didn’t my best in the first match, she told me no matter what, still do your best,” Jada Castillo said. “She gave me motivation to keep going and to put my best out there.”

Continuing to fight through to the end was important to send the seniors out on the right note, she said.

“I didn’t go out there in the right mindset. I kind of beat myself in my head. I was kind of expecting to lose which is what threw me off,” Jada Castillo said of her opening-round loss. “I rethought everything because this is my last year with my sister and the other seniors, and I realized I had to put it all on the mat so we could be recognized as a team in their last year.”

While Socorro can take pride in their accomplishments this season, it is just the beginning, Partridge said.

“We’ve experienced a lot of success on both sides,” he said. “There is no doubt, this has been the most successful wrestling year that Socorro has every experienced on the individual side and as a team. We’re proud of that. We always have high expectations. We want to keep getting better.”

Glen Rosales for El Defensor Chieftain