Trumbull High School will always be listed in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference archives as the first-ever girls’ wrestling team to be officially crowned a state championship team and three girls from Norwalk became state champions.
Lina Rodriguez, Rylee Donohue and Jeily Euceda all placed first in their respective weight classes to lead Norwalk to second place and give the FCIAC a 1-2 finish in this inaugural tournament which included team scoring for the first time.
Marangelie Teixeira and Emma Rial have been tremendous wrestlers for Trumbull the past three seasons and they both placed second this year to lead coach Charlie Anderson’s Eagles to the team title at the 2025 CIAC Girls State Wrestling Championship.
The accomplishments of the grappling girls from Trumbull and Norwalk along with many more conference wrestlers placing high at the state championship tournament highlighted a great season for girls’ wrestling in the FCIAC.
The conference has been at the forefront and is a perfect example of just how much high school girls’ wrestling has steadily grown and evolved statewide with the number of girls stepping onto the mats along with the quality wrestling ability of these young ladies.
The girls who compete during the regular season are members of the wrestling programs with the boys at their respective schools.
The females wrestle mostly against male opponents during the regular season either at invitational meets or at dual meets which are often multiple dual meets against as many as five teams in one day on a given Saturday.
These girls embrace such challenges and they do just fine by either winning matches or holding their own in other competitive matches.
The CIAC administrators took notice and did a great thing six seasons ago by creating the 2020 Girls Wrestling Invitational in which the girls competed for individual state championships and high placings in seven weight classes ranging from 106 to 160 pounds.
High school girls’ wrestling in the state has grown so much in the last five seasons that the girls’ state tournament has increased to 12 weight classes. The dozen weight classes of 100, 107, 114, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 165, 185, and 235 pounds has been the format the last two years.
And this was the year the CIAC implemented another great thing with the addition of team scoring for the first time.
Thus, Trumbull became the first girls wrestling state championship team ever with 113.5 points and Norwalk was runner-up with 94 points at the 2025 CIAC Girls State Wrestling Championship. Amity was six points behind Norwalk in third place.
Teixeira and Rial led the way with their runner-up finish for a Trumbull team which utilized its balance and depth to effectively cover plenty other weight classes to score points. There were five Eagles who placed in the top six.
Teixeira nearly three-peated in her 165-pound class before losing a 5-3 decision to New Britain’s Kaydence Atkinson in the second matchup between these two wrestlers in the last three seasons. This year Atkinson avenged being pinned at 2:34 by Teixeira two years ago in the 165-pound final. Teixeira won her second straight 165-pound state championship by fall last year.
Rial had a runner-up finish for the second consecutive year and has placed among the top four in her two separate weight classes in each of the last three years. In 2023 she placed fourth and last year she improved to second place in the 126-pound weight class. This year Rial moved up one class to 132 pounds and placed second.
Three more Trumbull wrestlers placed among the top six. Jillian Blake (120 pounds) placed third, Jade Castrillon (235) finished fourth and Anna Silva (152) was sixth.
Norwalk’s Bears scored the main chunk of their points from their three individual champions.
One cannot win any more impressively than Euceda did in her first state tournament when she pinned her opponent in 20 seconds in the 235-pound final.
Rodriguez won by a 21-7 major decision over Cristel Miguel of Amity in their 126-pound state championship match. Last year Rodriguez wrestled back and won the consolation final to finish third in the same weight class.
Donohue placed second in the two previous invitational state tournaments and this year she ascended one step up to the top of the podium after she won her 12-3 major decision over Trumbull’s Rial in their 132-pound final. Donohue was the 132-pound runner-up last year and the 126-pound runner-up two years ago.
Norwalk’s Victoria Mailard placed fifth this year in her 152-pound class.
Kan-yah McCarthy of Fairfield Ludlowe has had a great three-year run with one state championship and two runner-up finishes. McCarthy was last year’s 138-pound state champion a year after she was runner-up in that same class. She moved up one weight class this year and placed second to Haddam-Killingworth’s Amelia Petersen, who won a 10-5 decision in their 145-pound final. Ashlynn Cummings (120) of Fairfield Ludlowe was sixth this year.
Jocelyn Sanchez (107) and Linette Diaz (185) of the Bridgeport cooperative program both had runner-up finishes in their respective weight classes.
Gaby Aliaga of Greenwich placed third in her 126-pound class.
Esther Faith Albert (235) of Stamford finished fifth and two of her teammates, Sara Ospina (126) and Gabriella Mighty (185), both placed sixth. Darien’s Nina Smith (114) placed fifth.