Athlete of the Week: St. Francis’ Katherine Love

This year, Love moved up to 125s, where she went 4-0 on the day, improving her career record to 82-13 wins, including 63 pins. Her first three wins were on brand, as she scored three pins, including two in the first round, accruing just 4 minutes and 10 seconds of mat time. Facing Gilroy sophomore Jocelynn Mendoza in the championship round, however, Love achieved the rare feat of going the distance to win a 6-4 decision.

“She doesn’t do many three rounds, so she got a little tired there at the end,” St. Francis head coach Joey Bareng said. “I think she spent a little more energy there in the first period trying to take her down, but she ended up sticking it through. She’s a champion, so she knows how to wrestle and go for six minutes.”

Love said she was feeling the pressure heading into the championship finals.

She had just watched two of her teammates put St. Francis on the CCS girls’ wrestling map, with sophomore Eva Bhattacharya, a transfer from Monta Vista-Cupertino, earning a 6-0 decision for the 100s title, the first section championship in program history. Junior standout April Gao followed with a major decision to earn the crown at 115s.

Love opened by shooting a leg to score an aggressive single-leg takedown, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first round. This highlighted the difference between the rough-around-the-edges freshman who finished last season stronger than anyone could have anticipated, only to grow this season into the more calculated tactician who is suddenly thinking about the big picture, including possibly wrestling at the collegiate level.

“For me, I was never much of a shooter,” Love said, “and I would usually just sprawl and get around. But I’ve been really trying to work on my shooting, trying to get my offense up. So, I did shoot a single-leg and I finished it. So, that was super exciting, knowing I shot, and it was successful.”

After scoring another takedown in the second round, Love took a 6-1 lead into the late going, before Mendoza scored a takedown with less than 10 seconds remaining in the match.

“Right before she got the takedown, she was really shoving me around,” Love said. “I was really disoriented. She did a good job on that, and she got the takedown. And I was definitely annoyed, but I knew I was still going to win it, because there wasn’t much time left, and I was confident that I wouldn’t get any back points on me.”

Love finished with a fairly dominant showing, and now sets her sights on the CIF State Wrestling Championships, held Thursday through Saturday at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield. Last season, she posted a 3-2 record at the state tournament to crack the top 12.

“She’s made a big improvement,” Bareng said. “She’s just gotten a lot more mature with her techniques, and her mindset has just gotten much better. And she’s picked up a couple of different extra skills along with it. And we’ve got a good team going on, so we’re all riding together as a family.”

The St. Francis wrestling family has turned into quite a big family at that. In his third season as the program’s head coach, Bareng saw his numbers nearly double this season. Last season, the turnout of the burgeoning girls’ wrestling team was in the low 20s. This year, St. Francis started the year with 38 wrestlers on roster, including two team managers to make it an even 40.

“I think it’s really cool having a big team,” Love said. “There’s only a select few of us who are really serious about wrestling, but it is really cool in practice having like 30 girls, and showing up to a tournament, walking in with a giant team. It’s definitely confidence building, I would say.”

The numbers bared out at Saturday’s CCS Masters tournament. The Lancers will be sending four wrestlers to the state tournament, including junior Gabriella Celaya, who took third place at 155s, joining Bhattacharya, Gao and Love. Sophomore Maggie Tobacco also reached the CCS podium, placing sixth at 130s. All told, the St. Francis girls finished in second place in the team element with 121 points. Only CCS champion Monterey was better, but just by a smidge, with 123 1/2 points.

Now, Love is not only setting her sights on the state tournament. She is setting them high.

“My goal is to place this year,” Love said. “And top 4 would be super cool, but definitely placing is the goal, for sure.”

Coming off her CCS championship, though, Love is sitting on top of the world. Not a bad vantage point for the kid who grew up wrestling at the Peninsula Wrestling Club at Serra, who landed at St. Francis just one year after the school officially added a girls’ wrestling program.

“Just knowing that I’m No. 1 in my section is super cool,” Love said.