M-A senior Kiely Tabaldo, right, squares off against Paloma Valley’s Karissa Turnwall in the championship match of the 111-pound girls’ division at the CIF State Wrestling Championships Saturday in Bakersfield.
It may have seemed like a foregone conclusion senior girls’ wrestler Kiely Tabaldo was going to win a state championship, but you wouldn’t have known that from her emotional reaction as the final buzzer sounded on her four-year varsity career at Menlo-Atherton.
As Saturday’s 111-pound championship match concluded at the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield — with Tabaldo winning a 3-0 decision over Paloma Valley’s Karissa Turnwall — the typically lowkey, down-to-earth senior reacted with a rare show of emotion, jumping into the arms of her coach, and older brother, Royal.
The show of emotion was fitting, as Tabaldo had her sights set on a state championship since stepping onto the M-A campus as a freshman. In running the table this season with a 35-0 record, she finally realized that dream.
“I cried,” Tabaldo said. “It was a lot. It felt like surreal almost. I went back into our warmup room, and I just sat there for like 30 minutes, because I didn’t know how to react.”
M-A senior Kiely Tabaldo hugs her coach, and older brother, Royal, after winning the 111-pound title at the CIF State Wrestling Championships.
Tony Retundo
Not only did Tabaldo run the table this season, her dominant performance through five wins at the state tournament was nearly perfect as well. The senior totaled one pin, two major decisions, and two scoring decisions while only conceding four points throughout the three-day event. All four of those points were for stalling after she led 7-0 in an eventual 7-4 semifinal win over Walnut’s Deandra Meza.
“I decided this whole tournament I was just going to be a boring wrestler and I was just going to play it safe,” Tabaldo said.
Prior to her semifinal match, Tabaldo turned to her secret weapon — in-tournament napping. It’s a technique she’s darn near weaponized, as it helps not only rest her body, but also helps her stay lowkey, her preferred disposition while competing.
“Before my semis, I passed out in the warmup room,” Tabaldo said. “I just passed out for like an hour and a half. And I was like: ‘Oh no! I have to go wrestle! I’m going to be late!”
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Tabaldo was obviously on time, and maintained the “boring,” “safe” strategy she devised to earn her spot atop the podium.
In the finals, Tabaldo said she could sense the advantage from the outset. While Turnwall was tentative in the early going, Tabaldo quickly committed to going on the attack. She opened with a leg shot and a two-point takedown. From there, she took her time, choosing bottom position to start the second period and using it to pad her lead with a one-point escape.
In the third and final period, Tabaldo wound down her decorated varsity career by taking the scenic tour.
“It was cool,” Tabaldo said. “I was like: I’ll just hang out for the last period.”
The victory turned into a celebration for the entire Tabaldo family. With Talbaldo’s brother Royal on staff as an assistant coach, her mother Wendy serves as M-A’s head coach. Her father Roy is the only one who isn’t involved in the program directly, but at the state tournament he was in attendance as a fan.
Tabaldo’s father often travels with her, even in the offseason. With her M-A varsity career now complete, the next big road trip of the 17-year-old grappler will be in April when she makes the transition to folkstyle wrestling for the World Team Trials in Washington state.
Roy was also there for Tabaldo’s Central Coast Section three-peat, as she dominated the girls’ 111s in the CCS Masters Tournament Feb. 18 — Roy’s birthday. Tabaldo said she felt bad they couldn’t celebrate her father’s birthday the way she would have liked. So, she dedicated her state championship to him.
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