For the fourth year in a row, Derby’s girl wrestlers won the AVCTL I Title once more. The Panthers have had a promising season thus far with the girls finishing 6th at Newton over the 15th and 16th of January and 2nd at the Clearwater tournament

on Jan. 18; further at the Newton tournament several girls placed: senior Myrta Sanchez took 5th at 115.0, junior Brooke Downs took 2nd at 135.0, sophomore Veronica Madrid took 1st at 155.0 and junior Chloe Spears took 3rd at 170.0.
“(Claiming victory) felt pretty amazing to know that we would continue our streak, and it’s very empowering for all the girls to know that it’s not an individual thing,” Spears said. “We all worked so hard this season to complete the goal… all the hard work we put in is paying off.”
This year’s girls team is stronger than ever.
“We’ve been doing great as a team, our communication has been really good and just better bonding overall than we have had in the past couple of years,” Madrid said.
Communication, quality teamwork skills, and various motivations lead to successful victories; further, wrestling is a sport that is both mentally and physically on the body.
“(Winning first at meets) takes a lot of passion; I mean wrestling is such a hard sport and it’s hard on your body, (so) you have to love it… it has to be your everything,” she said.
Moreover, the girls wrestlers all have their own goals that allow them to push through trial and errors, so they can wrestle the greatest season possible.

“My goal is to hopefully place at state and to compete the hardest that I can, and my goals for the team are to maybe place at state as a team. That would be amazing, but I’m proud of them either way,” Chloe said.