McNary junior Marlina Martinez could barely contain herself after her match.
Martinez paced around the mat after beating Newberg’s Paisley Conway 9-0 in the Class 6A/5A 115-pound girls state championship match, searching for her family in the crowd at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
When she found her family in the crowd, she threw up her arms in an ‘X’ as a dedication to her brother, Xavier, who was paralyzed in a car wreck in December. The incident completely changed the trajectory of the season for Martinez and almost cost her the year.
Saturday was a complete 180-degree flip from the last time Martinez and Conway met on the mat, which came in the finals at the Lady Dragon Invite at Dallas in mid-January.
In that match, Conway dumped Martinez on her back and picked up a pinfall win in the first period. Martinez said that match was the result of her mind being elsewhere and not representative of her abilities on the mat.
“Honestly, I just didn’t wrestle like myself because I had a lot of family issues and problems and emergencies going on, and so my mind wasn’t all the way,” Martinez said on Saturday. “And that’s no excuse, like, at all. I should always be able to wrestle no matter what, no matter what circumstances. But mentally, I just wasn’t there.”
After Xavier Martinez was injured in a car wreck on Dec. 7, wrestling became secondary to the whole family. Marlina Martinez’s routine was shifted. She missed practices to see her brother in the hospital in Corvallis. At times she was ready to walk away completely.
“Wrestling got left on the back burner,” said Martinez’s father, Toby, who is also an assistant coach at McNary.
Marlina Martinez was still wrestling, but shifting her focus between her brother and the practice room was clearly keeping her from performing at her best.
The loss to Conway in Dallas became a wake-up call. Xavier Martinez doubled down, Toby Martinez said, and got Marlina Martinez motivated to go back to practicing the way she used to.
“Her brother kept pushing her to do it,” Toby Martinez said. “He pushed her to keep the routine going and she got back on track.”
After a couple of months of wrestling being secondary, Marlina Martinez was ready to step back into it at full speed.
“Me and my parents, we had a plan,” she said. “Like, no matter what, wrestling comes first, no matter what. We all had to adjust our lives to prepare me from that day on. And ever since that day, I feel like there’s no way I’m going to get my title taken away from me.”
With her gold medal around her neck, Martinez said the hard work and the lows of the season were what ultimately brought her to this second state championship.
“That little break, it put me down,” Martinez said. “But I was like, okay, this loss is just a learning experience. Cry about it for like five minutes and just go on with my life. Like, I have to win the next state title. And I did it. I did it. So everything leading to today, even yesterday, the night before, everything. Everything leading up to today really made a difference.”
And when she was ready to get back into wrestling full-time, Martinez said it was the thing that’s helped her stay above water emotionally as the family still figures things out.
“Wrestling is my therapy,” Martinez said. “Like, when I’m on the mat, nothing else matters. Wrestling is just life. It’s just life. Like, I go out there and I’m happy. I lose. I’m also happy. I’m there with my team. Like, these are the people that trust in me, and they make me this good. Like, why would I be mad or upset around them? There’s not one day that I’m not happy on the mat. It’s just, like, not possible.”
In Saturday’s finals bout, Martinez was quick to attack the legs. She wanted to keep space from Conway, who likes to tie up and attack from close range.
Martinez was able to scramble for a takedown with 30 seconds left in the first period to take a 3-0 lead.
“You can’t try to wrestle how they wrestle or try to avoid something,” Martinez said about her mindset going into the rematch with Conway. “You just wrestle how you wrestle and everything will come out flawless.”
Martinez made that a 7-0 lead in the second period, as she chose to start on top and was able to secure four nearfall points off an arm bar and half nelson combo. With Conway choosing top, Martinez hit a reversal in the third period to essentially secure the win.
With her second state championship in hand, Martinez is now tied with her sister, Ali, for most state titles in the family.
Ali Martinez was a two-time 190-pound state champion, winning in 2023 and 2024. Marlina Martinez said it was extra special to be able to share the love of wrestling with her older sister, who is now coaching at McNary.
“It’s so amazing having her in my corner, Martinez said. “She’s been there, no matter what, no matter the outcome or anything. She’s always supporting me, always boosted me up and getting my confidence up.”
Published with permission from The Oregonian/OregonLive. Nik Streng is sports reporter and editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive, covering the Portland Fire WNBA franchise.
