Sun Standout Award: Jenavi Alejandro, Centennial wrestling

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 | 2 a.m.

The referee raised Jenavi Alejandro’s hand in the air to signal her as the winner of the third-place 113-pound wrestling match at the Nevada state tournament in a historic moment.

She became the first girl to medal in the state wrestling tournament, an achievement not lost on the Centennial High School senior. In a rare showing of emotion, she proceeded to curtsy.

“That was my way of saying, ‘Look what this girl just did,’” she said.

Alejandro is a fitting recipient of the Sun Standout Award, which is reserved for someone who goes above and beyond in the face of adversity. A previous winner was a Coronado track runner who was shot during the October 1, 2017 mass shooting on the Strip.

Alejandro grew up in a wrestling family—her dad was a prep standout at Eldorado, her brother a champion at Arbor View. Soon, Alejandro and her younger sister, junior Juliana Alejandro, took up the family activity.

There are a growing number of girls joining the sport, especially in Nevada, where an all-girls state tournament has recently been sanctioned by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. Alejandro won her third-straight girls state title, part of a prep career that included more than 100 wins combined between boys’ and girls’ competitions.

She has long maintained that her gender was unimportant. The way she sees it, once the referee blows his whistle to start a match, it comes down to two wrestlers competing and the one with the better skill and dedication ultimately wins. Throughout her high-school career, that was usually Jenavi, who took second at the national girls meet in 2021.

She will continue wrestling in college at Tiffin University in Ohio, a program consistently ranked in the top 10 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association rankings.