'Her confidence went through the roof': Perth Amboy's Adebola upsets way to state title
ATLANTIC CITY – Ask Elizabeth Adebola if she thought she would be a state champion at the beginning of the season?
“No,” she said with a laugh. “Not at all.”
How about coach?
“If you would have told me that Liz would be a state champ right now, I would tell you I’ll put money on it she would not be,” Panthers coach Rob Morales said.
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Fast forward a few months, and Adebola topped the podium with a stirring run to the 152-pound state championship with wins over the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.
So, what happened?
Her talent, work ethic and smarts – she has a 4.0-plus GPA – were always there.
According to both of them, it primarily came down to her belief and getting in the right mindset, some early obstacles. About two weeks ago, something just clicked and Adebola has been on a hot streak since.
The senior said she accepted that the postseason would be starting anyway, so she decided to go with the pressure “instead of letting it take me, just kind of embracing it.”
“Might as well be ready for it,” she said with a laugh. “I just had to like keep my head down and keep pushing until the season kind of flew by and then it came to two weeks before regions and I started locking in.”
She becomes the school’s second girls state champion joining Ahsia Torres in 2022 and the third wrestler with Ferman Crisco winning a boys title in 1992.
Adebola noted Torres inspired her and now she’ll be the one lifting up the future generation of Panthers.
“I’m really, really grateful for the chance to even be here and even to be in the finals,” Adebola said. “I’m just really happy. I’m just really grateful for my team. They’re just so supportive and I love them and I can’t wait to like come back, visit and just watch all the great things that they’re going to do. Like I said, it means a lot to be here because it just shows them that we’re not excluded from these good things.”
Adebola, who took fourth in the state last season, started her run by capturing the North 2 Region gold medal with four pins last week. At the state tournament, the fourth-seed had two pins to reach the final, including stopping top-seeded Samira Kupa of Boonton in 2:20 in Friday's semifinal.
That set up Saturday’s championship bout against second-seeded Alexus Paden (Clayton/Glassboro). Adebola took a quick 5-0 lead with a throw. However, Paden came back and had Adebola on her back as they went out of bounds with the crowd getting into it.
The stands at Boardwalk Hall also got noisy when Paden had a takedown and back points in the closing seconds – but it was too late for the Clayton/Glassboro wrestler.
Adebola had the 10-6 win and a state title. Usually, champions erupt in victory and celebration.
Adebola remained on her knees, totally drained and in pain. She took injury time during the match and said both of her upper arm and shoulder areas hurt her, stemming from injuries earlier in the season that flared up in the match.
But, she had her state gold medal, something she wrote down months ago. Adebola said, “It just means a lot that the words I wrote on paper months ago like actually came true.”
Perth Amboy had a good tournament as sophomore Aaliyah Matias placed fourth as the No. 8 seed at 165.
“They’re always working,” Morales said. “They’re always asking each other questions. Sometimes I got to say, let’s go. You got to keep drilling, keep wrestling. But they’re talking wrestling. They’re making adjustments. They’re helping each other out.”
Morales said that Adebola is a great leader and always wants to learn. Throw in some belief down the stretch, and the rest is wrestling history.
“Her confidence went through the roof,” he said. “With confidence you can do a lot of things, especially in this sport, in any sport.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Wrestling: Perth Amboy's Liz Adebola wins state title
