Newfield freshman Julianna Hernandez wins state 126-pound girls wrestling title
ALBANY — The journey wasn’t as smooth as Julianna Hernandez hoped for, but she reached her destination anyway.
The Newfield freshman, who wrestles for Rocky Point, suffered an ankle sprain in December that kept her out of action for four weeks. While ankle injuries can be tricky to navigate, Hernandez was confident that the injury wouldn’t deter her from winning a state title.
The top-seeded Hernandez defeated No. 2 Sara Pauls (Minisink Valley), 18-6, by technical fall in 4:43 to win the 126-pound title at the first official girls wrestling state championship Thursday night at MVP Arena.
“It’s a really good feeling. Especially now that it’s sanctioned and you can say that you’re the first one to win at that weight, it feels really good,” Hernandez said. “I know all the double practices I did to get my weight down and just get to where I want to be was all worth it in the end.”
Hernandez won the 107-pound title at last year’s unsanctioned state invitational.
She led 9-0 late in the first period but was taken down on her back with five seconds left. Hernandez avoided the pin as time expired.
“I just knew to breathe and not freak out because if you freak out, you get pinned,” Hernandez said. “I just needed to stay calm, get back up and keep shooting because I knew I could score and get to my attacks and I just needed to do it again.”
She scored three takedowns in the second period, including a four-point takedown to seal the win.
Hernandez (16-1) pinned Riley Butler (West Genesee) in 52 seconds to advance to the final. She picked up two technical falls in the earlier rounds. Her only loss this season came when she injured her ankle in a match against Hicksville’s Haley Gonzales, who won the 120-pound title.
“We knew coming into this tournament that if she was in a good place in her mind, there would be no stopping her,” Rocky Point coach Darren Goldstein said. “When she was younger, she sometimes questioned her ability because she was new to it. The biggest growth that I’ve seen isn’t necessarily in the technical skills or the ability, but it’s seeing her mind meet her body. Now you have a still-evolving but complete athlete.”
Bethpage’s Gabrielle Severin was the runner-up at 114 pounds. The sixth-seeded junior was pinned by top-seeded Teegan Sibble (Bolivar-Richburg) in 1:11. Severin advanced to the final by pinning Lindenhurst eighth-grader Mia Severino in 1:58.
Severin finished the season 6-1 after missing most of the year with an elbow injury suffered in December, according to her father, Sean Severin, who is the Nassau girls wrestling coordinator and Bethpage’s coach.
“She got hurt in mid-December and it wasn’t clear if she would be able to come back,” Sean Severin said. “She didn’t wrestle all season until the county tournament. Those were the three matches she wrestled before today. To come out here and still put it all together . . . she’s a tough kid.”
No. 6 Mia Flores of MacArthur was pinned in 25 seconds by top-seeded Peyton Mullin (Dundee) in the 235-pound final.
Flores (14-3) knocked off No. 2 Khamya Maxwell (Lockport) by a 10-0 technical fall in 1:14 in the semifinals. Flores, a sophomore, won a 4-2 decision over No. 3 Patricia Deslandes (Minisink Valley) in the quarterfinals. When the two met in January in the finals at the Eastern States Classic, Flores won, 6-4.
“The team that we brought up here is very young. We only had two seniors on the whole team,” Sean Severin said. “Other than that, this is a huge returning team. We have three eighth-graders, a bunch of freshmen . . . It’s a really good starting point. They should all be proud. I’m excited about where we’re hopefully gonna be at the start of next season.”
