By Rick Pedone

Sports Editor

Solmaris Melo returned from Fargo, N.D. recently as a high school All-American after placing eighth at the USA Wrestling Cadet and Junior Nationals at North Dakota State University.

Melo, who will be a Liberty High senior, said it was an exciting experience.

“When I first saw the Fargodome I never would have believed that they would need something so big for wrestling,” she said.

Melo competed at Junior 159 pounds and earned a spot in the freestyle finals opposite a wrestler she is familiar with, Lorri-Ann Ramos, of Cypress Creek, for seventh-place. Ramos edged Melo for the Florida High School 145-pound state championship two seasons ago.

They were the only females from Florida to place at Fargo.

“I wrestled under those spotlights on the big mat,” she said. “I decided after that that I never want to wrestle on the small mats again.”

Melo transferred from Poinciana High in January after a melancholy junior season where she had to work through an illness and then a shoulder injury, she said.

She said she is revitalized after working with Liberty coaches Chris Kelly and Bucky Wells.

“I have to admit that I had reached a point where I wasn’t too excited about wrestling. My junior year took a toll. But, with Coach Kelly and Coach Wells, I’ve excelled. My love for the sport has returned,” she said.

Melo began wrestling as a seventh grader at Horizon Middle School. As a sophomore, she was the state runner-up and she joined Team Florida for a trip to Oklahoma City where she competed at the USA Wrestling Folkstyle National Championships.

The national tournaments have sparked her interest in pursuing the sport at the college level.

Her goal, she said, is to earn a scholarship to Northern Michigan University, which is affiliated with the USA Wrestling National Training Center.

“I took everything down off my wall and I have the application to Northern Michigan framed and hanging there,” she said. “That is my inspiration.”

If that doesn’t work out, she said, she also has found several alternatives worth pursuing.

She is training for the high school season where she will compete against boys at either the JV or varsity level, she said. The Liberty boys were the conference champs last year.

Melo plans to compete at the girls state wrestling tournament early next year.