Alex Gregorio-Perez said from the minute she stepped foot on the scale at the start of the Class 3A DeKalb Sectional, she knew she was going to repeat as a champ.

The Barbs’ 100-pounder’s vision became a reality Saturday afternoon with a 35-second pin of Oregon’s Kendra Ege, earning her fourth trip to state.

“I trusted my training, and I’ve been training really hard,” said Gregorio-Perez, who is now looking for her third state medal. “As soon as I weighed in, I knew I was going to win.”

The Barbs were the only team in the 67-team sectional to send four wrestlers to the state tournament. Aarianna Bloyd (235) and Larisza Gomez-Guevara (105) took second and Kara Zimmerman (135) took third.

Sycamore was one of three teams to send three wrestlers to state. Ema Durst (second at 140), Jasmine Enriquez (third at 235) and Frankie McMurtry (fourth at 170) will represent the Spartans.

Angelina Gochis (first at 120) and Sadie Kinsella (fourth at 190) will represent Kaneland at the state tournament, which begins Feb. 27 in Bloomington.

The four Barbs qualifying for state are the most in program history. That includes the freshman Gomez-Guevara, who trains with Gregorio-Perez.

“It definitely feels amazing, actually,” Gregorio-Perez said. “Every year I see the girls sport grow more and more. Not even in our program, but also in our club. And now it’s great to pass on the torch to my freshman Larisza. She’s my practice partner, we push each other. I’m excited for what’s to come with her.”

Bloyd lost her championship match at 235 to frequent foe Juliana Thrush of Ottawa, 2-0. The only points Bloyd gave up were a first-period stall and a third-period escape.

With 0:29 left in the third, Bloyd came close to a takedown but was ruled out of bounds.

“I know that I finally got into her head with state in two weeks,” Bloyd said. “I got a takedown on a really good girl. That feels good to me. I didn’t get the win. But I got the takedown in my head. ... I’ll get it when it’s time.”

The Barbs finished with the highest team score at the Belvidere Regional last week, and repeated the feat at home this week. They finished with 91 points, ahead of Minooka (65) and Pekin (58) in the top three. Geneseo and Sycamore (55) tied for fourth, just ahead of Erie (54.5) and Kaneland (50.5).

“I feel like we knew coming in we were going to have a tough fight this weekend,” Bloyd said. “We pulled it off, showing that we know how to fight. Maybe not getting three, four champs like we did last weekend. But getting four qualifiers is a big deal. Not a lot of people are doing that.”

While no one else at the sectional qualified four wrestlers, the Spartans sent three through to Bloomington, a feat only Pekin and Canton accomplished.

Durst led the way with a second-place finish, but it was her first loss of the year, 9-4 to Minooka’s Ezra Rodriguez. She had an early 3-0 lead, but Rodriguez tied it at 3-3 in the second.

With less than a minute to go in the third, Rodriguez got a takedown to go up 6-3. Durst escaped, but her desperation shot turned into a Rodriguez takedown with 0:05 left.

“She did the smart thing which was to take a shot and take me down,” Durst said. “I unfortunately haven’t had a lot of moments in my career where I’ve had to defend a shot so she was able to take advantage of that very well.”

Enriquez lost in a semifinal to Thrush on a second-period pin, but came back with a pair of first-period pins in the consolation bracket to finish third.

“It felt great coming back with a pin after losing that match,” Enriquez said. “My opponent was tough. Wrestled her before, she was very tough, but it felt good to get a pin.”

McMurtry lost her first match and had to win three times along the consolation bracket just to earn the trip to state. In the blood round, she was tied with Minooka’s Addison Davis 1-1 late in the third. Davis was called for a stall with 0:21 left, then was forced into a desperation shot that McMurtry was ready for and turned into a takedown, winning 5-1.

Gochis, a two-time state champion, picked up her third sectional title. She won on a third-period tech fall in the semifinals, but won on first-period pins in her other two matches.

“It feels really good,” Gochis said. “All the hard work is paying off. I just have to keep training.”