LA GRANDE — First year girls wrestling coach Krystal Fabricante not only took over a team for the first “official” year of competition, she also planned, hosted and took La Grande to victory in the opening tournament of the year, the Safeway Girls Buckle Classic.

Finding individual titles from Florecita Villagomez and Maleigha Azure, La Grande easily outdistanced a group of teams representing Oregon, Idaho and Washington to take the team title at the home meet on the mats at Eastern Oregon University. La Grande ended the tournament with 324 points, well ahead of second place Eagle, Idaho, with 179 points.

Union ended the two days with 43 points, a 10th place showing.

Wrestling at 115 pounds, Villagomez started the season with a perfect 4-0 record, culminating with a pin over Grant Union’s Zoey Beam in the championship match at the 3 minute, 38 second mark.

Azure, taking the mat at 130 pounds, was forced to wrestle the entire three rounds for her title, taking a 7-3 decision over Lake City’s Madi Cook to claim a buckle.

The Bobcats saw two fourth place showings with Emma Burtch at 100 pounds and Kari Stockoff in the 115-pound division.

Fabricante, a native of Alaska, returned her team to mats she knows well. Both her and her brother wrestled to Eastern Oregon University after successful high school careers in Alaska.

“College wrestling was a completely new arena,” said Fabricante of her four years on the collegiate mats. “I had different coaches the whole time but it also taught me how to adapt to different levels and types of girls wrestling.

The first year coach saw huge numbers of La Grand student athletes interested in the sport, official starting this year in Oregon, as 37 showed up on the first day of practice. The team currently places 26 competitors on the mats.

“Fourteen of the girls returned from last year’s team,” she said. “I was shocked to see how popular the sport was at La Grande High School. The group includes girls that have been wrestling for years back at mat club to girls just starting out for the first time this year.”

Fabricante said some are interested in taking the sport to the collegiate level while others are just learning the basics of the sport.

“Our goal is to be the biggest and toughest team in the state,” she said. “We plan on winning another district title and return our six state qualifiers back and add even more.”

The lone obstacle facing the team this season to date has been the weather. Originally scheduled to attend a meet in Homedale, Idaho on Dec. 1, the team instead of taking the mat sat on a bus in Baker due to the closure of the interstate. For the Safeway Belt Buckle Classic, the weather cooperated.

Fabricante and the Tigers will be watching the road conditions again as they depart for Boardman on Dec. 13 for the Oregon Trail County Girls Championship.