Julianna Ocampo makes history at Al Smith Wrestling Invitational

MISHAWAKA — There have been many magical moments in the illustrious history of the prestigious Al Smith Wrestling Invitional.

Julianna Ocampo put her name among the top history-making moments Friday.

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The Fort Wayne Snider sophomore became the first female champion in the 43 years of what is widely regarded as the state's best tournament.

Ocampo defeated Mason Jones of Lake Central 2-0 in the title match at 106 pounds to etch her name into history. She is now 25-1 on the season.

Crown Point piled up 318 points to win the 32-team event, contested over Thursday and Friday and named in honor of former legendary Mishawaka High School coach Al Smith. The 80-year old Smith, who was in attendance at both days of the event, coached the Cavemen for 32 years and won a state title in 1991.

Center Grove earned team runner-up honors with 238.5 points. Cathedral was third with 148 points with the host Cavemen fourth with 135 and Western fifth with 123.5. Penn ended up sixth with 114 points.

The tourney featured 97 grapplers ranked statewide, including 47 in the top eight and the No. 1 ranked wrestlers in eight of the 14 weight classes.

There was a duo of area wrestlers who finished as champions Friday in the prestigious event.

Senior Christian Chavez of host Mishawaka earned the title at 195 pounds. The senior defeated Kaden McConnell of Center Grove 5-3 in the final. Chavez improved to 22-0.

LaPorte star Ashton Jackson claimed the title at 120 pounds. The undefeated senior bested Tanner Tishner of Western 4-3 in the championship match to improve to 29-0 on the season.

Eleazar Walker of Mishawaka earned a runner-up finish at 132. The talented junior suffered his first loss of the season by a 10-7 final to Hayden Demarco of Chesterton in the finale. Walker is 23-1.

Penn's Bryce Denton claimed a second-place finish at 138. The junior lost 6-4 to Reese Courtney of Center Grove in the finals. Denton is 18-1.

Anthony Popi of Plymouth was runner-up at 285. He lost by fall in a time of 5:03 to Paul Clark of Crown Point in the title match.

Individual champions included Gavin Jendreas (113), Logan Frazier (126), Anthony Rinehart (152), Sam Goin (160), Orlando Cruz (182) and Paul Clark (285), all of Crown Point.

Also earning titles were Aiden Torres of Chesterton at 145 and Delaney Ruhlman of Bloomington South at 170.

Claiming runner-up titles were Charlie Larocca of Center Grove at 113, Liam Krueger of Columbus East at 126, Ike O'Neill of Westfield at 145, Mitchell Betz of Western at 152, Chase Leech of Garrett at 160, Noah Clouser of Center Grove at 170, De'clcapon Veazy of Snider at 182 and Tommy Morrill of Columbus East at 220.

Wesley Smith of Plymouth earned a third place finish at 145 pounds.

Other area placers included Kalaeb Salazar of Wawasee (fourth at 106), Ryann Schmidtendorff of Penn (fifth at 113) and Josh Kite of Mishawaka (eighth at 113), Dylan Bennett of Penn (eighth at 120), Will Mason of Mishawaka (fifth at 126), Mikey Kallimani of Jimtown (fourth at 132), Wesley Harper of Penn (sixth at 132) and Michael Robles of Mishawaka (eighth at 138).

Also placing were Evan Eutsey of Penn (eighth at 145), Beau Brabender of Mishawaka (fifth at 152), Hunter Miller of Wawasee (seventh at 152), Zymarion Hollyfield of Penn (sixth at 170), Isaac Valdez of Mishawaka (eighth at 170), Kaden Lone of NorthWood (fifth at 182), Jaxson Walters of Warsaw (sixth at 182), Donovan Blair of Wawasee (fifth at 195), Peyton Kendall of Penn (fifth at 285) and Brayden Jellison of Elkhart (seventh at 285).

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: The Al Smith Invite wrapped up Friday at Mishawaka High School