Edinburg High’s Cassandra Medrano became the first, and only, wrestler at state this year to advance to the finals, winning a thrilling match with a pin more than halfway through the final period.
“I don’t know what happened but she came at me and I knew she wanted to go back to the finals,” Medrano said through tears of joy. “But it’s my time to go.”
Medrano, 37-0, trailed 7-3 heading into the final period and with less than a minute to go, pulled off the stunner against Jubilee Rendon, the defending state champ and the same wrestler who defeated Medrano a year ago in the same round. Rendon fell to 51-1 on the season. Medrano claimed the pin at the 5:28 mark.
Rendon dominated most of the match but Medrano didn’t let down. Heading into the third period, her coach Abel Saenz told her to remain calm.
“I’ve been in this position before and I know myself and knew I had to hit a Hail Mary because it was now or never,” Medrano said. “I hit the switch. I grabbed her arm and just threw her. I didn’t even know ifI had the lock right.”
From being beaten to claiming a no-doubt-about-it pin took less that three seconds and Medrano’s arm was raised.
“I was blow away,” Medrano said. “I didn’t know what to do. This was my turn to make it to the finals, not hers.”
Medrano will now face Lilian Zapata of Flower Mound (52-2) this afternoon for the 100-pound Class 6A state championship.
