Nadiya Trujillo becomes first female wrestler to sign with Trinidad State, builds future for self and others

Feb. 5—Nadiya Trujillo has a bright future ahead of her, but the best part is she's showing others they can have a bright future too.

Trujillo, a senior at Sierra High School, recently became the first female wrestler to sign with Trinidad State College, where she will compete at the 109-pound weight class while studying applied science and nursing.

"I actually didn't know that I was the first girl," Trujillo said. "I found out reading the post they had put on their Facebook and I was so surprised and I was like, 'Wow, the very first. I feel special. ... It's history. When you go back and look for my name it's going to say first female wrestler signed and many people to come and wrestle for that school, generations later. I'm going to be able to look back and say I was the first person to sign for them."

Throughout her wrestling career, Trujillo has been a beacon for her school and her community. She's been wrestling since middle school and her high school career began before girls wrestling became a sanctioned sport by the Colorado High School Activities Association, she said. Even so, she placed fourth at the small tournament held at state her freshman year. In her junior year, she placed sixth.

Trujillo believes the recognition she's received for her accomplishments through the years have motivated others to come out for the sport and have helped Sierra field larger teams in both boys and girls wrestling.

Beyond Sierra's walls, Trujillo volunteers for a youth advisory council with RISE Southeast where she helped design the reimagined Panorama Park, which she lives only minutes away from. Trujillo was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony on a rainy morning last August, signaling the completion of the $8.5 million project and the largest renovation of a neighborhood park in city history.

"On opening day when I finally got to see it full and in person, it was just so cool for me because seeing something go from paper to you can literally play in the park is really fun," she said. "It was a really big project, a multi-million dollar project and to be able to say I'm a part of that is just a great honor for me."

Trujillo volunteers for the council in her spare time, when she gets spare time, she said. Mostly, though, she focuses on putting in the work in high school and club wrestling. Trujillo fell ill Thursday as one of a few kids hit with a bug over the week. She couldn't afford to let the sickness take away her Friday practice as well.

"You can miss a lot of key things in practice," she said. "Wrestling is not a sport that you can take even a day off, you take a day and you feel like you haven't been in for a week."

That drive is the reason she's met many of her season-long goals, including a personal favorite, taking second in the Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament in Greeley where she received a holiday-themed medal for her efforts.

She's currently 19-10 on the year, wrestling at the 100-pound weight class.

Trujillo wanted to place in the top three of the Colorado Springs Metro Wrestling Championships, but she ended up taking fifth. She'll use the setback to push her to make the finals of regionals and state this year.

"It was kind of a devastating thing for me," she said of her fifth-place finish. "It's just pushing me more to want to do better than that because I know I'm better than that."

Regardless of where she lands at the end of this wrestling season, her coach Ken Delahoy knows how important and impactful she's been for the Stallions.

"She's not the first girl to wrestle here but she's going to be the first multi-state place, hopefully we'll get another one this year, nothing's guaranteed," Delahoy said. "And then hey, there is a future. That's the biggest thing especially at our school is showing kids that there is a future that is foreign to them. So this idea of, to our female population, that girls can use wrestling to get to the next level. Maybe not to be an Olympic athlete but to get a college degree. Maybe not to be the best but hey I'm doing something my mom and dad would never have even dreamt me doing a couple years ago."

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