D8 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, JUNE 12 , 2022
Don’t lose position!” Vileforte
screamed as Isaiah’s opponent
wiggled underneath, desperately
trying to get out of a submission.
Isaiah eventually elevated his
body and saw an opening for an
arm-bar. He pulled as hard as he
could before his opponent
tapped out, tossing his hands up
and beginning to cry in frustra-
tion.
Isaiah eventually threw his
arms up, too, and within the hour
he had taken his place atop the
podium for his third MMA title.
He held up the belt and mim-
icked an announcer’s voice —
“Isaiah ‘The Natural’ Triana!” he
roared — before eventually re-
treating to a day-care room at-
tached to the gym. He FaceTimed
his father. Eddie told his boy he
was proud of him before starting
to cry.
“Thanks, Dad,” Isaiah said. “I
love you, too.”
Isaiah will fight in the Interna-
tional Sport Karate Association
World Martial Arts Champion-
ships t his month; he said he will
attempt to become a “Triple
Crown” winner — competing in
boxing, kickboxing and MMA.
Two of those competitions allow
head shots, but Eddie believes
headgear is safe and his son is
skilled enough to avoid any sub-
stantial blows.
First he was going to celebrate
this championship. “I’m going to
sleep with the belt under my
pillow,” he said, joking that he
hoped the tooth fairy wouldn’t
steal it. “Or the belt fairy.”
Isaiah slung the title belt over
his shoulder. “Congrats, champ,”
a parent told him as he walked
out of the gym. Isaiah looked
back and smiled before climbing
into Vileforte’s rental car. Isaiah
needed to stop and get some-
thing to eat with Vileforte’s fam-
ily at a Japanese steakhouse
down the street. He was weeks
away from his next weigh-in, and
he was starving.
“A lot of people say I inspire
them for MMA. If people are
getting inspired by me, it just
means a lot,” he said. “Because a
lot of 10-year-olds, they don’t do
this stuff.”Frank’s son. Thanh’s children
pushed him to compete in ama-
teur MMA fights, and once Park-
er turned 8, the two sons signed
up for the national champion-
ships.
“My only hesitation is, unless
you’re a Conor McGregor, this
isn’t going to be your career.
You’re not going to grow up and
do this and retire from this,” said
Thanh, who watched as Parker
won the national championship
for his age group. “My wife —
obviously all mothers — are con-
cerned about their kids getting
hurt; there’s always that concern
from a parent’s perspective. But
in this environment, it’s a con-
trolled environment. It’s a safe
environment.”
‘Congrats, champ’
As adult spectators and tour-
nament officials towered above
him, Isaiah walked calmly to the
ring for his final fight while
Vileforte, his trainer, steadied
his phone’s camera behind him,
hoping to capture every moment
of a national championship. Isa-
iah is a pint-size showman,
drawing from Eddie’s time in the
fight game and his mother’s
time as a hip-hop dancer in New
York.
His father has bought him
more than $7,000 in outfits and
suits to wear to fight events —
he’s trying to get a custom fit for
his son from McGregor’s suit
company, a reward for Isaiah
making fifth-grade honor roll —
and Eddie often calls Isaiah “Lit-
tle Conor.”
Before entering the cage, the
rules were laid out — “You can do
ground strikes, okay? But no
knees, no leg locks, no anacon-
das, no guillotines, all right?” the
ref leaned down and said. The
10-year-old nodded. Isaiah
stepped inside the ring, bowed
on the mat and prayed.
“Let’s go!” a referee yelled to
signal the start of the fight. Isaiah
danced with his opponent and
avoided a takedown — then took
the fighter’s back and mounted
him to the ground. “Stay heavy!
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
ALISHA JUCEVIC FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
TOP: Isaiah Triana, 10, got the win, as signaled by official Vanessa Hardy, for his first USFL modern pankration national title.
ABOVE: Triana, afterward doing a video chat with his father back in Florida, won his second fight by submission in 45 seconds.the bases with one out for sopho-
more Jackie Yeager.
Yeager watched as the second
pitch of her own at-bat came
screaming toward her moments
later. The pitch hit Yeager, and
the pain quickly dissolved into
excitement as Stone Bridge
walked off as winners.
“It was so loud that our runner
on third couldn’t tell it was a
hit-by-pitch,” Rice said. “She
thought it might’ve been a foul
ball because she saw the umpire’s
hands go up for a dead ball, and
then she stopped and started
going back to third.”
“Go score, Mairin!” Rice shout-
ed.
McCarthy touched home, and
the Bulldogs had done it. For
Rice, it was the development of
his team into a confident group
that helped his players win their
at-bats and clinch the victory in
dramatic, yet odd fashion.
“[Waisley] won because she
was disciplined. Same thing with
Mairin,” Rice said. “They were
very disciplined at the plate at the
end because we saw that [Hicko-
ry’s pitcher] was struggling a
little bit, and as a group they were
able to push that one across.”bring Dominguez home, knot-
ting the game at 5.
That brought up district play-
er of the year Katrina Swan with
just one out.
Swan took a pitch, then laced
a deep drive that landed beyond
the fence in left. Swan burst into
tears rounding third base as her
team swarmed her at the plate in
celebration.
“I was just so happy. I couldn’t
believe it. It was one of those
movie moments,” Swan said.
The Warhawks held on from
there, mobbing the field as Cos-
by’s late rally fell short.
“Our goal was a regional
championship, and coming into
the season it was going to be
states, but then when [Park] tore
her ACL, we were like, ‘Let’s just
go for regionals,’ ” Swan said.
“And then just making it here,
it’s unbelievable, I’m so happy to
be here with these people, too.”
The win was the eighth state
title for Madison.
“I thought if we were .500 we
would be lucky,” Adkins said.
“But after working with the girls
and after watching them and
just seeing how they rallied
around each other... that really
is why it’s so special.”BY NOAH FERGUSONStone Bridge softball coach
Billy Rice had questions about his
inexperienced squad as this
spring season dawned. Could this
new batch of Bulldogs step up?
Would they deliver a timely at-bat
when needed?
The answers were confirmed
Saturday in the Class 5 title game
as Stone Bridge topped Hickory,
2-1, at Riverside High in Lees-
burg. It is the second state title for
the program, which reigned for
the first time in 2019.
A day after throwing a perfect
game against Granby in the state
semifinal, junior Kayla Fekel
shined again for the Bulldogs,striking out 11 without walking a
batter. Fekel’s brilliance kept
Stone Bridge alive while the of-
fense failed to generate much
throughout the game.
With the score knotted at 1
heading into the seventh inning,
Fekel struck out back-to-back
batters and then induced a
groundout to give the Bulldogs a
chance to win it in the bottom
half.
“Kayla just got going in the top
of the seventh, shut them down,
really put pressure on them,” Rice
said.
Junior Annie Waisley drew a
six-pitch walk in the bottom of
the seventh, and after Mairin
McCarthy singled and Bergan
Needles hit into a fielder’s choice,
Fekel came to the plate with the
chance to win it for the Bulldogs
(22-6). Fekel was hit by the sec-
ond pitch of her at-bat, loadingVIRGINIA CLASS 5 SOFTBALL FINALBulldogs absorb the hitsand walk o≠ with a winSTONE BRIDGE 2,
HICKORY 1BY NOAH FERGUSONBefore Saturday’s Virginia
Class 6 state title game against
Cosby, Madison Coach Jim Ad-
kins had a simple message for
his team.
“There’s no pressure,” Adkins
said before the Warhawks’ 7-6
comeback win at John Champe
High in Aldie. “We’re not even
supposed to be here.”
Madison’s comeback Saturday
capped a rally that really began
shortly before the season
opened, when the Warhawks
learned 2021 conference player
of the year Katelynn Park, the
team’s ace, had torn her ACL and
would miss the season.
“When that happened, theteam really had to make a
decision. ‘Hey, the season’s over
before it even starts, or we got to
all pull together,’ ” Adkins said.
“That’s kind of been the rallying
cry all year long.”
On Saturday, the Warhawks
(16-1) needed one last rally to
hold off the defending champi-
ons. Down 5-3 entering the sev-
enth, Madison scored four times
to take command, then held off a
rally from the Titans (18-7) in
the bottom of the inning to
secure its third state title in five
years.
Before the Warhawks came to
bat in the seventh, Adkins hud-
dled with his team outside of the
dugout.
“This is a game,” Adkins told
his players. “Go play it.”
The rally got a boost from
Graciela Dominguez, who dou-
bled to trim the Titans’ lead to
5-4. Rachel Schlueter singled toVIRGINIA CLASS 6 SOFTBALL FINALWarhawks finish a rallythat started at the outsetMADISON 7,
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