Canon-Mac’s Solomon wins gold with at Pan-Am games
Canon-McMillan’s Marlee Solomon is a gold medalist for Team USA.
Solomon won gold in girls freestyle wrestling at the U20 Pan-American Games Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
She defeated Ariana Saenz Abanto of Peru via a 10-0 technical fall in the championship match to secure the title.
It was the first appearance for Solomon in a world event and she was dominant.
She had to wrestle into the bracket in a qualifier, and ended up not yielding a point in any match.
Solomon scored a quick first-period pin in 16 seconds in the preliminary match against Milagros Salgado Rios of Panama.
That got her to the quarterfinals where she faced Alejandra Serrano Roa of Colombia. Solomon moved on in convincing fashion, defeating Roa by a 10-0 tech. fall.
Solomon scored another tech. fall in the semifinals, 11-0, against Elizabeth Chapman of Canada.
The win set up the championship match with Abanto.
For the day, Solomon outscored her opponents 31-0 in matches that didn’t end with a pin and had one win by fall.
Solomon, a McKendree University commit, is a two-time state champion and had a perfect 39-0 record in the winter. She is 78-3 in her two years wrestling in high school for the Big Macs after moving to Canonsburg from the state of California. She’ll be a senior this fall at Canon-McMillan.
The Pan-Am Games were the first of two international events for Solomon.
She’ll represent Team USA at the U17 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan from July 27 to August 2.