The Cerritos College women’s wrestling team has come off back-to-back state championship titles led by head coach, Dustin Kirk, who has been named coach of the year for the second consecutive year.
The women’s program is fairly new as it has only been alive for two seasons but it has had great success.
In a previous interview with 3C2A Kirk said, “I think the team chemistry is one of the biggest things that set us apart.”
Cerritos came in first place at the 3C2A State Championships held at Sacramento City College leading by almost 50 team points on April 20.
12 people on the team placed at the tournament with eight becoming All-Americans. Three wrestlers became state champions for their respective weight classes.
Sophomore 180-pounder, Nile Jernigan, has become the first woman two-time state champion for Cerritos and she explained how she remained humble despite previous success.
She said, “I treated this whole season at zero. I didn’t think about last year’s wins, struggles, mindset nor state championship. Everything was a reset for me.”
Jernigan talked about focusing more on having fun this time around than last season because it boosted her confidence.
Kirk instills this mindset in his team as he said, “I talk about enjoying the process, having fun, and enjoying the journey.”
She said she can continue to get better every day and there is still work to be done.
“This year’s state championship was just to show the four-year schools that I’m Nile Jernigan and I’m here to show y’all what’s coming for y’all,” she said.
Jernigan then explained how the coaching staff played a huge role in her success.
“There was a down point this year where I was second guessing myself in continuing this sport,” she said, “With the help of our head coach Dustin Kirk I was able to regain my love for wrestling and win all the way through.”
Sophomore 160-pounder, Natalie Resendiz, is another one of the three individual state champions this season after coming in at fourth place last year.
She talked about what it took to get to first place and said, “During the offseason that was my ultimate goal. I made sure I got extra practice when I had the time and made more of an effort considering I couldn’t accomplish what I wanted to the first season.”
Cerritos was just starting to build their women’s team when she thought about joining, and she explained how they only had a handful of girls but enough for them to have their own women’s practice.
Resendiz said she was excited yet hesitant because she would be commuting but after talking to teammates and Kirk she decided to join the team.
“I had met one of the girls prior to joining and she talked about how much she enjoyed wrestling there and for coach Dustin. Hearing that made my decision to wrestle at Cerritos a lot easier,” she said, “Talking to coach Dustin about his plans for the program made it feel like that was the right decision.”
