Sunnyside sophomore Audrey Jimenez made history on Friday night beating fellow standout Paige Morales in the 106-pound competition of FloWrestling’s first all-girls card of its Who’s Number One competition at Dallas.
The 10-bout card featured three No. 1 vs. No. 2 matches, with the main event featuring a pair of No. 1-ranked wrestlers from different weight classes.
The final No. 1 vs. No. 2 competition was between Jimenez (bronze medalist the at the Cadet World Championships this summer) against Morales (a winner this summer at the Fargo, N.D., Championships).
Jimenez, seeded No. 1, was tied at 9 with Morales, of Clovis, Calif., with 54 seconds left in the match. Morales’ attempted throw was blocked by Jimenez, who mounted Morales and locked the pin.
FloWrestling interviewed Jimenez after the match and she was asked about wrestling for Sunnyside’s program, a dynasty with 34 state championships.
“We have a lot of people who lead by example like the guys at the Division I level like Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) and Jesse Ybarra (Iowa). It pushes us to do better ourselves,” she said.
Jimenez secured an exposure to take a 3-1 lead over Morales. Her takedown of Morales built her lead to 7-3 at the break.
Morales used a four-point throw on the edge to force a tie at 7. Jimenez forced a step out for an 8-7 lead.
A Morales exposure and Jimenez reversal created the tie at 9. Jimenez blocked a Morales lateral drop attempt and secured the pin for the win.
Jimenez is the No. 1 female wrestler in the nation at 106 pounds according to FloWrestling because she defeated Nyla Valencia and Faith Cole at the Women’s National Championships in May. She outscored opponents 44-1 in that competition, which earned her the Most Outstanding Wrestler award.
She also made history last season when she became the first female to win a state title for Sunnyside. She is also the first female wrestling state champion from Tucson.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District
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