More ’bout PAL Wrestling Championship Tournament

With just two wrestlers on their girls’ varsity roster this season, the South City Warriors qualified one for the medal rounds in Khloe Meisenbach. The senior navigated a thin field of just three wrestlers in the 140-pound bracket to win the individual crown with a first-round pin of Aragon sophomore Halona Nacua in the finals.

While South City didn’t place in the top 12 of the girls’ team standings, the Woodside boys did, placing 11th. Senior heavyweight Carlos Latu led the Wildcats by earning the individual championship in the 285-pound division, winning the finals with a 7-1 decision over El Camino junior Davian Martinez in the tourney finale.

Latu earns tourney honors

Latu’s championship match featured a classic showdown between two decorated PAL football linemen. In the most recent 2025 season on the gridiron, Martinez was named PAL Lake Division Offensive Lineman of the Year. Latu was a defensive standout, earning first-team All-PAL Ocean honors for the division champion Wildcats.

Through his two preliminary matches Saturday, Latu was on the mat for just over two minutes combined. He opened with a pin midway through the first period of the quarterfinals against Carlmont senior Kenjiro Barajas. In the semifinals, he pinned Hillsdale junior Robert Fakava Ma in the opening minute.

Latu’s tactical approach in the finals looked more like sumo wrestling than folkstyle, with he and Martinez locking through consistent wrist holds and arm pressure. While it was by no stretch a blitzing approach, Latu earned two takedowns and an escape, while surrendering just one escape point in a stern defensive effort.

Four Outstanding Wrestler honors were given at the tournament, two boys and two girls. Latu was named Outstanding Wrester for boys’ upper weights.

Meisenbach delivers for shorthanded South City

With Terra Nova’s reigning PAL champion Sophia Darer returning to girls’ 110s as a senior, the rest of the nine-wrestler bracket was going to be hard-pressed to contend. With Darer breezing to a third PAL title by virtue of two pins and a major decision in the finals, South City sophomore Luciana Chavez was one of the other eight overshadowed at 110s.

Meisenbach, the only other wrestler on the South City girls’ roster this season, certainly wasn’t overshadowed, however. The senior took three byes to advance straight to the finals of the three-wrestler 140s bracket to repeat as PAL champ.

“Last year I was nervous going into my postseason, and this year I was way more confident and I was calm in my performance,” Meisenbach said. “I put in a lot of work in the offseason. So, I just knew there wasn’t much of a challenge that I had to face.”

Last year, Meisenbach topped the podium at 142s with a 7-3 decision over Carlmont in the finals. This time around, she was more efficient, scoring a pin at the 1:04 mark of the first period.

“I wanted to work on some takedowns, so I got a few takedowns and my coach yelled at me to pin her,” Meisenbach said. “So, I pinned her. I just used an arm bar and I walked over her.”

Meisenbach earned Outstanding Wrestler honors for girls’ upper weights.

An array of three-peats

Darer earned her second PAL title for Terra Nova, though head coach Sirena Konishi-Rhode is adamant the star senior should have three. As a sophomore, Darer settled for a controversial second-place finish at 110s after being disqualified in the finals for a technical violation. Two weeks later, she left the PAL debacle in the dust by claiming the Central Coast Section championship.

Darer swept through the PAL and CCS titles last season, but fell one win shy of a spot on the CIF State Wrestling Championships podium by finishing 3-2 in Bakersfield, getting eliminated in the blood round. This year, the senior is on a mission to claim some state hardware.

“She’s more technical this year,” Konishi-Rhode said. “She’s got some different moves this year. So, we’ve been working on some things. I think she has some surprises up her sleeve.”

There was an array of three-peats Saturday, though, including Oceana junior Angeline Galon at girls’ 105s, Half Moon Bay junior Pluto Halterman at girls’ 190s, and Half Moon Bay junior Gabriel Garcia-Procopio at boys’ 132s.

“[Garcia-Procopio] is on a roll this season,” Half Moon Bay coach Sam Temko said. “He’s won every tournament, other than MidCals, where it was one loss and he didn’t make weight the second day. We’re expecting big things from him these next couple weeks at CCS.”

Halterman was an auto champion at 172s in last year’s PAL tourney, as no one else wrestled in the bracket. This year, with three wrestlers at 190s, she recorded two wins. The first was 17 seconds into the semifinal round against Hillsdale sophomore Ashley Torral. In the finals, she pinned Mills junior Kelaliah Johnson 1:17 into the first period.

“I think it’s probably consistency,” Halterman said of the makeup of a three-peat. “A lot of people, they’ll start and maybe they won’t be satisfied early on, and they might give up. But I think a lot of girls, they should keep up with what they’re doing, and you’ll have a chance to get better.”

Kat climbs to the mountaintop

One of the most emotional first-time winners of the day was Half Moon Bay junior Kat Abramenko, who navigated a crowded 130s bracket to three wins, culminating in a 7-5 decision over reigning 132s champion Terra Nova senior Ava Mendoza in a finals comeback.

“She couldn’t believe it,” Temko said. “She came off the mat crying in disbelief because Ava’s kind of had her number before, and she’s lost to her, I think, every time they’ve wrestling leading up till this one.”

One of those loses came to Mendoza in last year’s PAL finals via second-round fall. This year, Abramenko flipped the script.

“She was down by a point going into the last round,” Temko said, “and she chose neutral. ... [We] said you’ve got to go, there’s like 24 seconds left. She hit a shot and Ava stuffed it, she came right up and hit a head throw off it. It was beautiful. Textbook. And she secured the takedown for the win.”

The top three placers in each PAL boys’ weight class, and the top four placers in each girls’ class advance to the CCS Wrestling Championships, opening Saturday with regional qualifiers. Championships will be decided the following weekend at the CCS Masters finals.