Just a freshman, Isabella Alcala went in to the State Wrestling Meet ranked in the middle of the pack.

“She was ranked 20th out of 40,” Escalon head wrestling coach Derek Scott said of the 101-pounder, who earned a trip to the state championship in her first year wrestling for EHS.

In her first match, Alcala was leading but then got caught in a move by a more experienced opponent and lost that bout.

“In the second match, the girl just overwhelmed her,” Scott said, noting that Alcala went 0-2 to finish out her season.

Still, making it to that level as a freshman bodes well, he said, and Scott, assistant coach Travis James and Alcala’s mother made the trip to Bakersfield for the competition.

Wrestling is almost wrapped up; Scott said there is a K-12 tournament planned on Sunday, March 6 on the high school campus, featuring wrestlers from both the high school and the youth Escalon Wrestling Club.