Dec 28, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

CANONSBURG — In the words of Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play announcer Greg Brown, Canon-McMillan’s Marlee Solomon has hit a “trip, trip, triple.”

Solomon doesn’t play baseball, and she doesn’t really hit, unless it’s a double or single-leg takedown, but the Big Mac junior completed the Triple Crown of high school wrestling Sunday afternoon at Canon-McMillan High School in winning the girls Powerade tournament.

Solomon won the women’s Ironman tournament on Dec. 14 and the Beast of the East on Dec. 19 before wrapping up Powerade with a fall in the finals to win the 118-pound championship.

All three tournaments are considered to be among the top three in the country, and to add more to the challenge, they are contested three weeks in a row. Solomon was presented a championship belt for her accomplishment.

“I am really proud of myself for growing and continuing to get better at wrestling,” Solomon said. “It is so awesome for girls to have opportunities to wrestle in tournaments like this. I hope it continues to grow.”

Solomon had extra incentive to win Powerade this year after she was disqualified for a slam in her first match last season. Solomon was ahead by eight points in the bout when she was penalized.

Solomon wrestled all the way back to the consolation finals, but she wasn’t able to compete for third place because of having wrestled six times that day.

“That made me so mad that I couldn’t come back and wrestle for third,” Solomon said. “They fixed that this year, which is great, but they wouldn’t have done that with the boys.”

Solomon, who won the state title last year at 112 pounds, improved to 16-0 this season. Her “closest” match was a 10-2 major decision in the finals at Ironman.

Solomon won her first bout at Powerade by 15-0 technical fall on Saturday before recording back-to-back falls to reach the semifinals. She won her semifinal bout by technical fall.

Solomon upped her career record in Pennsylvania to 55-3. She wrestled as a ninth grader in California.

Solomon wasn’t the only Canon-McMillan competitor to win a championship, as teammate Yunuen Ayala won a 9-5 decision over Caitlin Rankin of Riverbend, Va., for her first Powerade title.

“I broke out of my shell a lot this weekend,” Ayala said. “I got over a lot of fears because I definitely had mental blocks when it came to cutting and shooting. My confidence wasn’t as much as it is now. I wasn’t expecting to win this, so I am really overwhelmed.”

Ayala led the 124-pound final 6-3 after two periods following a late reversal by Rankin. The deficit was cut to two when Rankin escaped, and a penalty for stalling on Ayala pulled Rankin within one point before Ayala scored a takedown as time expired in the match for the four-point victory.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match, but I am glad I was able to pull it out,” Ayala said. “I train with Marlee (Solomon) in the wrestling room and she is super tough, but she also teaches me a lot, and it makes the matches not seem as bad when I wrestle her in practice.”

Ayala won her first two bouts at Powerade by fall before a 5-0 decision over South Park’s Anna Duncan in the semifinals.

Ayala, who is a two-time state qualifier with a sixth-place finish in 2004, upped her season record to 16-5. She has aspirations to wrestle at the collegiate level.

The Big Macs’ Alaya Henderson placed second at 148 and teammate Audrey Calgaro was third at 170. London Ellis (4th/235) and Giana Wingfield (6th/190) medaled in the top six to lead Canon-McMillan to its third straight team championship at Powerade. The Big Macs scored 171.5 team points. Cleveland, Tenn., was second with 139 and Mount Lebanon third with 111.5.

“It’s great to win Powerade three years in a row,” Canon-McMillan coach Ron Totterdale said. “Obviously, what Marlee (Solomon) did was unbelievable, and she and Yunuen (Ayala) really push each other in practice. We have some tough competition coming up in January, but we are excited to get in more matches.”

Burgettstown’s Riley Kemper placed fourth at 112. Peters Township’s Liliana Giulianelli (190) also took fourth. Avella’s Abigail Dolanch (142) and Trinity’s Elaina Ashby (148) reached the podium with fifth-place finishes.