Domino Parrish, the top-ranked girl’s wrestler at her weight in the Central Coast Section, swept through the section finals with an unblemished record to win her first CCS title last weekend. The finals took place at Oak Grove High School on Saturday, Feb. 8.
Parrish, a junior wrestling at 118 pounds, was utterly dominant as the top seed, pinning three of four opponents in the first period, and one in the second. Her longest match lasted 3 minutes, 20 seconds. She pinned her other three opponents in 1:37, 51 seconds and 23 seconds.
“It felt really good,” Parrish said. “Last year I lost to the (eventual) national champion, Cady Chessin (of Los Gatos High School). I feel like my hard work paid off.”
Teammate Cailin Smestead took fifth at 160 pounds for the Falcons who finished 16th of 53 teams with 37 points.
Coach Ken Kannegaard said Parrish’s attitude this season has allowed for her success.
“Domino had her mind set at the beginning of the year that she was going to take state and CCS,” he said following her CCS win. “I think (she) is going to carry that same attitude into state.”
To prepare for the season, Parrish took the summer off from wrestling, but began working hard in the fall to prepare, lifting weights, running and training on the mats with the boys wrestlers. When wrestling season rolled around in November, she entered into boys tournaments, even placing in the top six several times.
“I think wrestling with the guys is good because they can be stronger so you have to build your technique and you have to work harder,” she said.
Her father and coach Mike Parrish, agrees.
“I think going to boys tournaments, it changed her expectations of how she has to wrestle, to the detriment of the girls she has to wrestle,” he said.
What’s the difference between this year, and last? Along with being a year older, Parrish says her technique has improved and she has added more-advanced moves.
Parrish was part of the Falcon girls CCS-winning team in 2012, but had fallen short against Chessin twice. This season with Chessin graduated, Head Coach Jared Norman said that everything has come together.
“She definitely had a game plan and she implemented it,” Norman said of Parrish’s CCS performance. “She was aggressive, confident, and everything worked out the way she planned it.”
Parrish is undefeated wrestling against girls this season, and her father Mike Parrish said there are big things to come. They have planned to travel to eight postseason tournaments this year. With the CCS win, Parrish qualified for the February 28 state championship in Visalia. If she wins she will travel to the Pan-American Games and if she wins there, a trip to the Junior World Championships, Mike Parrish said.
“She’s been up another level from where she was last year,” he said. “I think she will do extremely well.
Scotts Valley 47, Harbor 15
Thor Oglesby, Addy Johnson, Michael Sandoval, Nick Reyes, Jace Hardwick, Andy Ramirez, Doug Peyser, Baldan Dashiev all won with bye’s as Scotts Valley dropped Harbor 47-15 in dual meet action on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
Also for Scotts Valley, Domino Parrish, wrestling at 120 pounds pinned her opponent in 1 minute, 55 seconds. Falcon Josh Blum fought through a bloody nose that caused several timeouts and won a tight match over Jessie Castillo 5-4 at 134 pounds. Frankie Graves at 195 pounds, Sean Stiles at 220 pounds and heavyweight Casey Gombos all lost hard-fought matches for the Falcons.
Five Falcon seniors were honored before the dual meet, which was held at Scotts Valley High. Dashiev, Hardwick, Stiles, Gombos and Johnson will graduate in the spring.
Teams will prepare for the SCCAL finals which are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 21 at Harbor High School. Matches are set to begin at 3 p.m.
