With the expansion of girls wrestling in Colorado, Eaton’s Lina Cruz (23) was able to compete at the state wrestling tournament at the Ball Arena. Since Eaton doesn’t offer girls wrestling, Cruz wrestled for Northridge high school along with Shelby Pribelsky (23).

Girls wrestling was recently CHSAA sanctioned, and allows girls to compete against other girls whereas before girls would wrestle in the boys division. Many tournaments, including regionals and state, offer female brackets. The 2022 state wrestling tournament was the first to have a division for girls wrestling.

To earn a spot at state, Cruz had to place in the top five of her weight class at the Region Two wrestling tournament. This was Cruz’s first year wrestling. “I started wrestling because Shelby convinced me, but I also did it because of my little brother. He had wrestled and he said he would start doing it again if I did it,” Cruz said. 

At regionals, Cruz won two of her matches by pin. She ended the tournament in second place. At state, Cruz won one of her matches by pin but fell short in consolation. In her last match, Cruz worked through all three periods to fall short in points. 

Cruz said she was most proud of “just trying something new. It is definitely out of my comfort zone. I never would have thought I would have done something like that, but I went out there and I tried and ended up loving it. It was one of my best decisions.”