{"id":198810,"date":"2026-03-01T03:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/198810\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:03:08","slug":"long-beach-wrestler-dunia-sibomana-rodriguez-wins-third-state-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/198810\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach wrestler Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez wins third state title"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2014 Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez<\/a> is a state wrestling champion \u2014 for the third time!<\/p>\n

The final chapter of his high school career has been written. Sibomana-Rodriguez, who captured the hearts of wrestling fans across New York State, proved that you can do anything and defy any odds.<\/p>\n

The Long Beach senior capped a phenomenal five-year varsity career when he used two takedowns to beat Manhasset senior Will Russell, 7-1, to capture the 118-pound weight class in the Division I state tournament before a packed house at the MVP Arena in Albany on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The five-time state place winner, who also finished third in 2023 and second in 2024, delighted the crowd with his signature cartwheel into a backflip after the win.<\/p>\n

He was named the Division I tournament\u2019s Most Outstanding Wrestler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here because of the support of my family, my coaches and the Long Beach community,\u201d Sibomana-Rodriguez said. \u201cI came to the United States with nothing and so many people took care of me. I am forever grateful for all those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the age of 6, Sibomana-Rodriguez was playing just outside his village of Rutshuru in the jungle of the Virunga National Park, a vast animal preserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa, when a troop of chimpanzees attacked him<\/a> and two family members. His brother and cousin were killed in the attack.<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez survived but was left with horrific injuries to his lips, ears and face. His right ear and facial muscles were gone and the middle finger on his left hand was bitten off. The attack made it difficult for him to speak or swallow.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis story is one of courage and perseverance,\u201d said Long Beach coach Ray Adams, who crowned his 19th state champion. \u201cHe\u2019s amazing in every regard. A special young man that promises to do big things in his lifetime. It\u2019s almost unbelievable but I experienced it. We always taught him \u2014 no losses, just lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez became the second wrestler in Long Beach history to win three state titles. Al Palacio earned three state crowns from 1980-1982. He also earned his 200th career win in a first-round win Friday. Sibomana-Rodriguez finished his career with a 203-17 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenior year went by very fast and I can\u2019t believe this part of my journey is over,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been quite the ride, and I hope I made everyone proud. Now starts the next chapter and getting ready for college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming to America \"Long<\/p>\n

Long Beach wrestler\u00a0Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez. Credit: Newsday\/Thomas A. Ferrara<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez was brought to the United States in December 2015, by a New York-based, non-profit surgical care program at Stony Brook Children\u2019s Hospital, where a team of surgeons began his care. Dr. Alexander Dagum, the executive chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stony Brook Medicine and Dr. Leon Klempner, an associate professor of dentistry at the Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine and the founder of the nonprofit organization Smile Rescue Fund for Kids teamed to care for Sibomana-Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

The not-for-profit Smile Rescue Fund for Kids identifies children in resource-poor countries who need facial or cranial surgeries and perform these procedures at no charge. Dr. Dagum performed the initial surgery, transplanting tissue and muscle from Dunia\u2019s left forearm to recreate his lips while Dr. Klempner took the lead on the dentistry end. Sibomana-Rodriguez has endured 21 facial surgeries.<\/p>\n

With the help of multiple foster families, Sibomana-Rodriguez, who spoke only Swahili, learned English and enrolled in Long Beach Schools.<\/p>\n

There he met Long Beach Middle School wrestling coach Miguel Rodriguez and his then fiancee Marissa Carruci. They were married in 2017 and became the fourth and final foster family to care for Dunia. They officially adopted him and he became a permanent United States resident in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am blessed to be where I am in my life,\u201d Sibomana-Rodriguez said. \u201cMy doctors took care of me and gave me the opportunity to have a great life. And without my family, friends, coaches, the people in our community, none of this was possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sibomana-Rodriguez story is one of courage, overcoming adversity and sheer individual determination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t always easy for Dunia,\u201d Marissa Rodriguez said. \u201cOnce he found wrestling, he found his confidence. And the sport has given him a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

2022: The beginning<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez burst onto the wrestling scene and won the 102-pound Nassau title as an eighth-grader in 2022. He shocked the state with a pin in 1:32 over top-seeded Ryan Ferrara of Chenango Forks in the state championship at the MVP Arena in Albany Feb. 26. Sibomana-Rodriguez locked up Ferrara in a tight cradle to become the 17th state champion in Long Beach\u2019s storied history.<\/p>\n

To win his first state crown, he needed to beat the top two seeded wrestlers in his weight class on the final day of the tournament. He upset No. 2 seed, freshman Luke Satriano of Valley Central, 9-3 in a semifinal win. It was the beginning of five straight state place finishes. He finished the eighth-grade season at 35-2.<\/p>\n

2023: The expectations<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez\u2019s quest for a second straight state title came crashing down in one lateral drop in the semifinal round of the state\u2019s Division I tournament. Satriano prevailed against the Long Beach freshman with a well-timed takedown with 27 seconds left in the third period to beat Sibomana-Rodriguez, 2-1, in stunning fashion in the 110-pound weight class in the MVP Arena.<\/p>\n

The final 27 seconds were an exercise in futility for Sibomana-Rodriguez as he desperately tried to elude Satriano\u2019s grip to gain a one-point escape and tie the score to force overtime. It didn\u2019t happen and Sibomana-Rodriguez was forced into the consolation bracket.<\/p>\n

There he won two bouts and placed third in the state. It was a defining moment in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way one reacts to winning and losing defines their character,\u201d Adams said. \u201cDunia has always been a cool customer \u2014 it\u2019s one of his greatest strengths. Win or lose, he\u2019s always classy. The loss to Satriano was a teachable moment, a valuable lesson that he would learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valley Central coach Bob Leonard called the Satriano vs. Sibomana-Rodriguez bout, \u201cthe most intense match in my 27 years of coaching. A great match between two excellent wrestlers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Satriano went on to win the state crown. Adams hugged Sibomana-Rodriguez on the way out of the arena. \u201cI told him, \u2018Your story is far from over,\u2019 \u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

2024: One point<\/p>\n

With incredibly high expectationsm Sibomana-Rodriguez, a sophomore, rolled through another stellar season and into the state final at 108 pounds. There, he lost, 1-0, when his opponent Cooper Merli of Newburgh Free Academy executed a great game plan. \u201cWe didn\u2019t open up offensively,\u201d Adams said. \u201cIt was one of the few times that Dunia allowed an opponent to dictate the pace of the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second-place finish and 42-3 record would set the table for 2025, when Merli and Sibomana-Rodriguez would meet in an epic rematch in the state final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about all of the obstacles he\u2019d overcome in his life,\u201d Miguel Rodriguez said. \u201cOf course he was disappointed. But I wanted him to focus on all of life\u2019s blessings. This wasn\u2019t the end but part of the journey. And life will have its ups and downs and who knows better than him. Sometimes I must remind myself of what he\u2019s gone through, what\u2019s going on in the present and what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n

2025: Redemption<\/p>\n

It would be the year of redemption<\/a> for Sibomana-Rodriguez. The state championship that eluded him for two years arrived in fantastic fashion in a rematch against Merli for the 116-pound crown.<\/p>\n

In the final, Sibomana-Rodriguez allowed an escape with one second left in regulation to force overtime with the score tied at 2. He pushed the action in overtime, catching Merli, the two-time defending state champion, with a whip 30 seconds into the period for the pin in 6:44 to claim the state Division I title before a delirious crowd in the MVP Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis story is one of courage and perseverance,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

It took three years to get back on the top of the podium \u2014 the next big moment in a journey filled with milestones and achievement. And of course, the celebration of a cartwheel and a backflip to enjoy his second state championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed that one,\u201d Sibomana-Rodriguez said afterward. \u201cThis is the biggest win of my life. And it came against a great opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the title bout, Long Beach assistant coach Leo Palacio delivered a memorable pregame speech that really hit home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told him no one knows your pain,\u201d Palacio said. \u201cYou\u2019re built differently. No one can truly understand your pain. Everyone does pushups and situps and runs for conditioning. Their challenges are nothing like yours every time you step on the mat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez finished the season with a 48-2 record. And yet the best was yet to come for the junior in 2025. He verbally committed to wrestle for the University of North Carolina \u2014 an accomplishment that may have seemed out of reach not long ago but turned reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Carolina is my dream school,\u201d he \u201cWe visited the coaches and I felt right at home at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with Dunia the first time I met him,\u201d Marissa Rodriguez said. \u201cA sweet boy with a wonderful attitude who just needed love and a chance. He\u2019s always been my hero. When I watch him wrestle, I see a kid who battled through the kind of adversity no one should experience. He\u2019s a survivor, a fighter. He\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Sibomana-Rodriguez followed the script in 2026.<\/p>\n

The one that ended with the signature backflip.<\/p>\n

\"Gregg<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tGregg Sarra is Newsday’s high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2014 Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez is a state wrestling champion \u2014 for the third time! The final chapter of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[66332,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-198810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-hs-wrestling-boys","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}