Mar 8, 2024 3 min read

By Joe Tuscano

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

HERSHEY – The roar from a nearly jam packed Giant Center Friday night was deafening.

But Valarie Solorio seemed to not notice. The senior wrestler from Canon-McMillan High School had just registered her 15th straight win, a pin in 1:06 over Payton Hinkle, a sophomore from Bensalem Friday in the semifinals of the inaugural PIA Girls Class 3A Wrestling Championship.

Solorio spent the next five or six minutes greeting friends and well-wishers in a way that would have made a presidential candidate proud. Solorio and teammate Natalie Rush, who gutted out a 1-0 win from Esmerelda Tellez of Reading, are the two area female wrestlers in the finals. A third wrestler from Canon-McMillan, Audrey Calgaro, was pinned in the 170-pound semifinals and dropped into the wrestlebacks, which were not completed at press time.

Hinkle wriggled out of trouble early in the match. The second time, there would be no wriggling out of trouble for Hinkle.

“Even though we’re at different weight classes now, we did compete with each other at a younger age,” Solorio said. “Being a kind person on and off the mat is really important to me. All these girls have the same goal as me. I want to succeed but I want to see everyone behind me succeed too. Even though we’re in different weight classes now, at one time we competed against each other. As you get older, you spread out through the weight classes.”

Solorio missed about half the season with various knee injuries. It took dedication to work herself back into shape.

“She has a partially torn MCL and a torn ACL,” said Canon-McMillan head coach Brien Krenzelak. “It’s a lot less painful now. Let’s put it that way. We were heavy into physical therapy all year. We have a good physical therapist above and beyond the injury. We were getting stronger. We were lifting. We started rehabbing in October and were ready to go in the second week of January.”

Solorio takes on Grace Nesbit of Neshaminy in today’s 4 p.m. finals.

Natalie Rush added three wins in this tournament to her 31-2 overall mark. Her bout against Tellez was one of the most difficult of the season. Rush rode Tellez for the entire third period to pull out the win.

“It was a tough match, I have to say,” said Rush. “I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy match, like the 10-second pins we are used to. It took everything I had to keep my lead.”

Rush scored the only point of the match early in the second period, when her strength broke the hold of Tellez.

“I can’t say I rode a lot of people out.” Rush said. “This was one of the first times.”