Cardinal Gibbons’ Yancey, Western’s Macias are Broward County’s Wrestlers of the Year

Cardinal Gibbons’ Nicholas Yancey is the Miami Herald’s Broward County Boys’ Wrestler of the Year for the second straight season.

Western’s Lourdes Macias is the Herald’s first ever Broward County Girls’ Wrestler of the Year.

They were the top two in Broward all season and finished the year with runs all the way to the state championship, where Yancey won a Class 1A title in the 126-pound weight class and Macias finished as the 115-pound runner-up.

“To end the season off with the cherry on top of a state championship,” Yancey said, “is a really huge accomplishment.”

Said Macias: “It was my last one, so I really had to make it count.”

A junior, Yancey won all 40 of his matches this season and now has a 64-match winning streak after winning his last 24 on the way to a 1A title in 2021.

As a freshman, Yancey finished fourth at the state tournament and it inspired him to make the extra push needed to become a champion. He was tied with 12 seconds left in the bronze-medal match, went for a move and wound up on his back, losing out on bronze at the last moment.

“Ever since then,” he said, “I just went hard.”

He’ll now have a chance to be a three-time state champion — and three-time Wrestler of the Year — as a senior.

Macias, a senior, waited for years for a season like this one. She had been wrestling since her freshman year, but this was the first year girls’ wrestling was a Florida High School Athletic Association-sanctioned sport. She was grateful to be part of it.

“Girls have been wrestling this whole time,” Macias said, “but we didn’t really get that spotlight. We kind of felt like, ‘Oh, you’re a girl, you’re not as important when it comes to wrestling,’ but now it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re here. We work just as hard.’”

Macias went 22-10 in her final season in Davie and set the tone for the Wildcats, who sent more girls’ wrestlers to the state meet than any other Broward team. She trained in jiu jitsu before she got to high school, so she and -- and another girl who did jiu jitsu with her -- decided to join the wrestling program at Western, competing with the boys and in the few girls’ meets organized around South Florida each year.

She considers herself an advocate for girls’ wrestling, which made this season especially meaningful, even if couldn’t quite end with a gold medal.

“I kind of cherish this season the most. I’m so glad that my last year it was actually sanctioned, so I felt almost lucky,” Macias said. “I got to be a part of it.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 8:45 AM.