ATHERTON, Calif. -- Vanguard women's wrestling followed the men on Sunday at the Menlo Open and netted two podium placers.  Lily Avalos took gold at the 131-pound bracket and Loretta Lopez placed third at 111 pounds to round out a great day for the Blue and Gold. 
 
 
What Happened?  Alexis Garza won her opening bout of 2025-26 over Lesly Perez of Lassen College 8-0 at 103 pounds but could not replicate that against Leah Ford of Texas Wesleyan in her next encounter, as Ford won 17-4.  What did not help matters as that Garza was slowed down by something in her match against Ford, as she then pulled out of the contest after that.
 
110 Pounds: Abbeygael Cabuag ended up facing Keira Siason in her first match, and the two racked up six points in over two minutes of action in the first period, but Siason then made a lunge and got a pin to advance.  Unphased, Cabuag swatted aside her next two competitors with ease, passing Isabelle Inda 11-0 and Zoe Brewer 12-2.  She then slipped past Audrey Swiderek of Menlo with a pin in the first period and then took on Mia Navarro of MC.  Cabuag netted the first eight points of the contest but, unfortunately, Navarro tallied the next nine to knock out Cabuag short of the top eight.
 
111 Pounds:  Lopez smashed Alexandra Loretto of Lassen 10-0 in the first frame to collect her first win and repeated that score against Alaina Jaime of OUAZ.  However, Lopez had a setback against TWU's Carolina Rios in a defensive struggle, as neither wrestler made a takedown in the bout.  Rios got two pushouts to Lopez's one for a 2-1 result, putting Lopez in the consolation bracket.  Lopez responded by blanking Isabella Coronado of Eastern Oregon 10-0 and then got two takedowns in the second period to get past Briseis Serrano of SOU 4-2.  Lopez then shut out Gloria Diaz of EOU and pinned her in the first interval to advance to the third-place meeting.  There, Lopez faced Hayden Fry of Menlo, and each wrestler got one early takedown.  But after that, Lopez got three points and rolled that into a pin to secure a bronze.
 
124 Pounds: Elena Ramirez fought hard in two scraps but lost to Haley Harahara of MC 10-0 and Jasmina Immeava of MC 4-2.
 
131 Pounds:  Avalos made a pin of Lastevla Muir of MC in the opening three minutes to start her day off with a tidy result and she followed that up with another pin of SOU's Eliza Goodwin after that.  Avalos then rambled through Avery Mohr of MVC with a 10-0 win to reach the championship match, where she overpowered Jade Morales of SOU 19-8 to net an individual title. 
 
145 Pounds: Piper Hall registered 12 opening points against OUAZ's Brianna Reyes, but a late slip let Reyes make a pin to deny Hall a win in an otherwise stellar match.  Hall regrouped and put on her best defense, but could not get a point against Sadie Hall of SOU in a 10-0 defeat.
 
160 Pounds: Charlize Jewell started against Arianna Mauch and Jewell dove in for an early pin to advance.  She then put up 15 points against Piper Lalli for a 15-5 decision but then ran into problems against Menlo's Alexandra Lopez, who won 10-0.  Jewell had advanced far enough in the bracket that her next match was for fifth place, and though she put everything she could against SOU's Vida Boskovic, the Raider won 12-3, with Jewell placing sixth.
 
Marina Hernandez was also in the bracket, and her closest match was her first against Veronika Shayhen of Sacramento CC.  Shayen got the first takedown, but Hernandez countered with a four-point move to take the lead.  Unfortunately, those were her last points scored, as Shayhen secured the next three to win, and Mya Willis of MVC beat Hernandez 11-0 in her second encounter. 
 
Kylee Wohlwend began her year with a 10-0 win over Maisen Vesco, but Mikayla Lancaster of MC got two takedowns and a pin to set her back.  Something in that match did some harm to Wohlwend, who had to pull out before her consolation match against Mariz Soliman.  Soliman opened her run with a second-period pin against MVC's Mya Willis after trailing 3-2 after one period.  However, Shayhen pinned Soliman in her next match, but Soliman answered that with a pin of Samsara Gomez of SCC.  She kept going with a 14-10 result over Addison Canja, and her next opponent was Kayllana Mazzucchi of Southwestern Oregon CC.  Though Soliman gave a good accounting of herself early on, Mazzucchi eventually made a pin to advance.
 
What was Said?  "It is always a great way to start a season with placers at the first tournament," relayed Head Coach Joe Evano.  "Now we need to continue to build on what we learned."