Female Athlete of the Week: Layla Casto

Layla Casto, a Junior at Palisade, a wrestler for the combined team, and a winner of tournaments has been chosen to be our female athlete of the week. She has only been wrestling for a few years and wrestles 2 weight classes above her own weight. Layla along with other girls at Palisade wrestle with the combined girls team in the district that includes Palisade, Central, Grand Junction, Fruita, Glenwood Springs, and the girls who are homeschooled. 

We had the great pleasure of being able to interview Layla and we started off by asking her what got her into the sport of wrestling. She answered, “I just clicked really well with my head coach when I first started wrestling, and I got into it because I like things that are more aggressive and more contact.” We asked her to explain to us what she would say her favorite part about wrestling is, “Winning.” Layla is such a great wrestler and we wanted to know who inspires her the most, “My coach. He wrestled all through high school and he lost one match the entire time he went through high school. He just clicked with me really good when I first started wrestling and really understood me. And he has always had a way with persuading me to keep going and doing my best. Especially since I don’t weigh 190 I only weigh 150.” We asked Layla what she would say her greatest wrestling accomplishments are, “Went to state my first year. I think I ended my sophomore year with my record which was like 24-2 because I had an injury. I don’t know I do pretty good in the 190 weight class for not weighing 190. My record right now is 21-4. A lot of people don’t do that, get the idea to wrestle 40 pounds above their weight so that is a pretty big accomplishment for me.” 

The season is still going and so is Layla headfirst into the matches. Make sure you get to those girls wrestling matches to see Layla and the rest of the fantastic team!