Kits Can't Plant Enough Seeds At Berman Classic

At least three members of the Evanston girls wrestling team probably deserved top four seeds for the fifth annual Sally Berman Holiday Classic Invitational Tuesday at Palatine.

But artificial intelligence still hasn’t caught up with common sense, so the Wildkits had a tougher path to achieve medals and settled for a 16th place team overall in the 23-team field.

Evanston’s best finishes were fifths by Omowonuola Fajimolu at heavyweight, Fatima Gomez at 190 pounds and Rachael Jacobs at 120 at a competition where the payoff for ETHS was more about improvement and the progress a young squad is making on a daily basis.

With only one senior in the starting lineup --- Gomez --- the Wildkits are still a work in progress with a learning curve that has no ceiling.

But the Kits were up against an inaccurate seeding process Tuesday. Trackwrestling.com, which is the go-to website now to set up brackets and record results nation-wide, still has some bugs to work out.

For Tuesday’s invite, the site listed every single grappler from ETHS at 0-0 as far as won-loss records are concerned entering the meet. Since a 0-0 record won’t bring a top four seed anywhere, Evanston and a couple of other schools who experienced the same fate probably didn’t get the match-ups they had already earned to date.

Fajimolu (5-1), Ja’Niya Harris (9-2 at 190) and Isabella Vernon (13-2 at 145) should have been top four seeds on paper. But Vernon lost to the No. 4 seed from Bartlett, Liliana Chavez, in the second round in her bracket, Fajimolu was pinned in her first match by No. 4 seed Mackenzie Mansavage of Conant, and Harris was pinned by No. 2 seed Irma Villa of Palatine in the first round of her bracket.

Jacobs (9-4) ran into No. 1 seed Mackensie Szajda of West Chicago right away and was pinned before bouncing back to claim a fifth place medal.

Seeding for regular season tournaments in both boys and girls wrestling has never been an exact science. But who you wrestle against --- and when --- usually does impact the medal haul.

“I don’t think most of our girls were even aware of the seeds,” said ETHS assistant coach Antonio Martinez, who certainly wasn’t looking for excuses after this team overcame a miserable first round showing to take 16th place with 57 points. Homewood-Flossmoor ruled the team standings with 150.5 points. “Seeding is more important at the end of the season (in regional and sectional tournaments), but it’s kinda important now, because it gives us a chance to see just where they’re at.

“I’d say that if you’re the hardest worker, or the best in your bracket, the seeding really doesn’t matter. I put our records in the computer, but there was some sort of glitch and we weren’t able to fix it. It’s not the end of the world. Trackwrestling still has some bugs in it, some stuff going on, and there’s still a learning curve with it because it’s new.”

Seeding mishaps didn’t prevent Fajimolu --- her teammates call her Ola --- from adding to a medal haul that’s nothing short of impressive for someone in her first year of competition. The rising sophomore came to Evanston from Nigeria just 10 months ago and originally wanted to suit up for the ETHS basketball squad.

But when she couldn’t make the cut in that sport, she was pointed in another direction by basketball coach Brittanny Johnson. Since then, Fajimolu has won medals at the Elias George (third place) and Maine East (first place) tournaments and improved to 9-2 overall with consecutive wins over Jade Esquivel of West Chicago (default), Kim Barron of Conant (fall in 38 seconds), Aniaah Garcia of Palatine (fall in 1 minute, 17 seconds), and Mia Sanchez of Palatine (7-4 decision).

“I am so surprised, so proud of myself and so happy to get another medal,” said Fajimolu. “I just got into wrestling and now I already have three medals.

“At first I wanted to play basketball, but I guess I wasn’t cut out to be a basketball player even though I really love basketball. Coach Johnson recommended me for wrestling and one of the girls on the team said they needed more girls on the team, so I said OK, I’ll try it.

“At first my Dad said oh, no, my baby girl might get hurt. But after I won that first medal he was very proud of me. I love basketball, but now I’ve found my passion --- and that’s wrestling.”

Fajimolu advanced through the consolation bracket with at least one bizarre outcome. Esquivel of West Chicago defaulted their scheduled match because she had tape across a nose ring and wasn’t inclined to remove the jewelry once the referee inspected her.

“All I know is that after losing my first match, I was scared I might lose again,” said the Wildkit sophomore. ”But after the forfeit, I was able to fight through the rest of my matches. I’m so tired right now because almost everyone I wrestled is 30 or 40 pounds bigger than I am. I’m taking more shots than most of them and that makes a big difference.”

“Both Ola and Ja’Niya are new, but they learn quick,” praised Martinez. “They’re coming into their own right away. You’re not supposed to win anything when you’re as new as they are.

“Ola body locks so well, and then when the person she’s wrestling expects another body lock, she’ll shoot on those big girls. She’s clearly a powerful girl and if she gets a little more confidence, she can shoot and really dominate other people. Once she realizes ‘oh, yeah, I am tough’ things will change for her.”

Gomez pinned teammate Harris in 1:38 in the consolation semifinals, then disposed of West Chicago’s Weni Koudi with a fall in 1:25 to take the fifth place medal. Harris went on to win her 7th place match with a fall. “Fatima will probably start at 190 the rest of the year,” noted Martinez. “Fatima is the present, and Ja’Niya is the future for us there.”

At 120, Jacobs broke out to an 8-1 advantage in her opener, only to see West’s Chicago’s Szajda turn the tables on her for a fall in 3:18. Jacobs responded by scoring two falls and a technical fall before pinning H-F’s Taniya Bradley in 4:48 in the fifth place showdown.