#WomenWednesday: True freshmen Laurent, Martinez, Figueroa make big impact in college with No. 1 rankings
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
Top Photo: Jayden Laurent of Lakeland University in action. Photo courtesy of Lakeland University.
Bottom Photo: Selma High School stars Alleida Martinez and Gracie Figueroa at their signing ceremony announcing the decision to attend Menlo College. Photo courtesy of Menlo College
In case you missed it, the 2018-19 women’s college season is heading into its most important national competition, as the annual WCWA National Championships are set for Feb. 8-9 at the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta, Ga.
At this time, three true freshman stars enter with a No. 1 WCWA national ranking in their weight class: Alleida Martinez of Menlo College at 109 pounds, Gracie Figueroa of Menlo College at 116 pounds and Jayden Laurent of Lakeland University at 143 pounds.
There was little doubt that these young women were expected to be successful in college. All three have been stars in USA Wrestling’s age-group national and international competition during their prep years. All three were ranked No. 1 in the National Girls High School rankings as seniors. And all of them surprisingly chose to stay within their home state to attend college.
Menlo College is one of the pioneer women’s college programs, going back to the early years of women’s college wrestling. Lakeland University, however, is a first-year women’s program and the first women’s college team in its state. Lakeland made big news with the signing of Laurent, shortly after the university announced the start of the program.
“It was huge for us. She was a high school superstar and just about every college in the country was going after her. We were excited to start the program and offer her the opportunity to stay close to home. She has a great following in Wisconsin, people who followed her over the years and watched her grow. She was excited about the opportunity to stay in touch with those people. We wanted to recruit her because of her talent and natural abilities. We have big goals at Lakeland, not only for her but for our team. Getting her gave us that instant credibility that we can attract high-level recruits,” said Lakeland head coach Ben Chapman.
Laurent came in with an amazing resume. In her senior year in high school, she placed third at the 2018 Senior U.S. Open, then was second in the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, which gave her the No. 3 spot on the Women’s Senior National Team. Laurent also wrestled on the 2018 UWW Junior World Team.
Since coming on campus, she has not lost a match. The coaching staff have not only enjoyed working with her, but have come to know more about her as a person.
“When we recruited her, she was shy, kind of timid. We weren’t sure what kind of personality she would have. She was a little soft spoken and kind of quiet. That has completely changed since we got to know her and built a good relationship with her. She loves to joke around, loves to laugh and is a great leader. Everyone knew she was a great wrestler. We weren’t sure how she would handle a leadership role. As the season went on, she was more comfortable around the coaches and the team. She has embraced the leadership role. She leads by example, when it comes to working hard and pushing herself, but also in uplifting the other girls and trying to get them to wrestle to their potential,” said Chapman.
The job of a college coaching staff is to help make their athletes improve, and Chapman has seen Laurent develop in the course of her first season in college.
“Her sheer athletic ability is undeniable. She can do things a majority of girls her age just can’t do. Her explosive power and strength makes her a really good athlete. That transfers onto the mat. She has some good technical skills but still has a lot she can learn. That is scary to other people, with her ability to improve with her wrestling technique. In the past, she could use her overall athleticism and strength to win matches. We have been working on fine-tuning her technique. We talk all the time about attention to detail, and that will help her take the next step in college and on the Senior level. It has been great to see the progress she has made,” he said.
Laurent has helped the Lakeland program get off to a good start, and recruiting for the second group of incoming athletes is going well. She will have the chance to put her extensive talents to the test, and represent this new college program at the upcoming WCWA Nationals.
“She has put herself in the position to win a national championship. We try not to focus on that. There’s the cliché ‘one match at a time.’ Being a freshman, we don’t want her to put too much stress and pressure on herself. We just want her to wrestle to the best of her ability. If she does that, she has a very good opportunity to win a national title,” said Chapman.
Alleida Martinez and Gracie Figueroa were both undefeated four-time state champions for Selma High School. They were both also members of the respected Titan Mercury Wrestling Club, and were able to win Cadet World medals for the United States as they climbed USA Wrestling’s age-group ladder.
When Martinez and Figueroa decided to both stay in-state and attend Menlo College together, it was big news in both California and on the national women’s wrestling scene. This didn’t just happen at the last minute, as Menlo was working hard for a number of years to set the table for this decision to be made.
“Every recruit we get into our school is difficult. We have a specific challenge, with the degrees limited and the cost of tuition. In their situation, they are the two best wrestlers in their weight classes coming in. We talked about it, before recruiting Gracie and Alleida, that it was going to take a few No. 1 athletes on our team in order to break through as a top-five team. We knew that was our plan from the beginning. We planned for this for the last four years,” said Menlo women’s coach Joey Bareng.
Part of the plan was making Menlo one of best teams in the WCWA, which would give these two super recruits an environment where they could excel on the mat. At the 2018 WCWA Nationals, Menlo placed fifth, with four All-Americans and a large number of tough wrestlers returning.
“I had been talking to one of their private coaches, and have followed them like everyone else. Getting them up for their visit was the important part, so they could see that they can get better with our program. We had kids on our team that could push them and wrestle them. If we didn’t have that in our room already, it might have been difficult. They were looking for a place that could take them beyond the college circuit, and they have found it here,” said Bareng.
Bareng and the coaching staff knew they had special talents joining the team. What they came to learn were that they were both also special people off the mat.
“We found out about the sweetness of both of them. They can come off as intimidating to the public, especially if you are outside looking in. Once you break into that inner-circle and you get that trust, you realize how sweet they really are. They are family people, which we noticed when we were recruiting them. They are family oriented, which is what we are building here at Menlo. You just don’t think that people who wrestle at that level, with that much tenacity, can be as sweet as they are. That is the No. 1 surprise that I learned,” said Bareng.
Martinez has made three age-group World teams, including winning a 2015 Cadet World silver medal and a 2016 Cadet World bronze medal. Add in a seventh place finish at the 2018 Junior World Championships, to boot. Her list of national-level titles is long, and covers both folkstyle and freestyle.
“My nickname for Alleida is smooth. She tends to make anything not look hard at all. Her face never changes when she wrestles and is under pressure. I put her through some workouts that would crush any Div. I man, or anybody in the world, and would create a change someone’s face. She just eats it up. She doesn’t blink an eye. Her strength is her poise. She keeps that poise, no matter what situation she is under,” said Bareng.
Figueroa boasts a 2016 Cadet World bronze medal and competed on three U.S. Cadet World Teams. She was also a member of the 2017 Junior World team. Like Martinez, Figueroa has a numerous national titles to her credit. The two athletes were making big news, side-by-side, for many years.
“Gracie is a little bit opposite of Alleida. I would use the word bully. She will beat you with her intimidation. She seems to go and just take the move that she wants. She can be a little bit more forceful and powerful, and she walks around a tournament that way. That works well for her, especially if the opponent knows who she is. Just like Alleida, she has that poise as well, even though she is wrestling with such intensity. That intensity stays; it does not come down at all. She is a competitor and it shows on the mat. She does not want to give up any position. Even with girls bigger than her, she does not want to give up a takedown. She hates it. You can just see it. She wears it on her sleeve a little bit more than Alleida might,” said Bareng.
Both have not lost a college match since coming to Menlo. According to Bareng, they don’t let any moment scare them, because they have been in tough situations before. They know they have stepped on a big stage in the past and performed well.
“I am learning every day, just how good they actually are. In fact, I don’t fully understand the extent of their potential and it is exciting. I know for a fact that they haven’t been pushed to that level yet. In the room, sometimes the assistant coaches will have it happen where you can see it. But out in a match, at this level, the opposition hasn’t even been close,” said Bareng.
As coaches, part of the plan at Menlo is to support their growth, while not trying to change who they already are.
“Their mindset is to do everything that they have always done. They understand they have countless hours of practice under their belt and they were born to do this. You can see it in their wrestling. On the coaching side, we try not to get in the way of that. You don’t fix what is not broken. You just help it along. We ask them what they need, and what we can do to facilitate environments where they can be successful. I have seen an increase in level since they got here,” said Bareng.
In the first 15 years of women’s college national tournaments, only four athletes have won four national titles. Victoria Anthony and Helen Maroulis of Simon Fraser reached the feat in 2014. Emily Webster of Oklahoma City won her fourth title as a senior in 2015. At last year’s WCWA Nationals, Kayla Miracle of Campbellsville closed out her career with title No. 4. The first step to reaching this elevated status is winning as a freshman
These three No. 1 ranked stars are not the only freshmen who have a legitimate shot to win the WCWA Nationals on their first try. Four other freshmen come into the event with No. 2 national rankings: Junette Caldera of Jamestown at 101, Felicity Taylor of McKendree at 116, Ashlynn Ortega of King at 143 and Serena Woldring of Simon Fraser at 191.
WOMEN’S WRESTLING NOTES
Tamyra Mensah-Stock became the first U.S. athlete to win the Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix three times when she tore through the 72 kg weight class in Krasnoyarsk last weekend. She not only won all of her Yarygin golds in consecutive years, but her record-setting third title came wrestling up a weight class. Mensah scored a pin, a technical fall and a solid 9-4 win in her three matches on the way to the title. This is not the weight where she will compete this year, but it offered a good test for her in the early season.
The first U.S. woman to win more than one Yarygin gold medal was two-time World bronze medalist Sally Roberts, who came home with Yarygin titles in 2005 and 2008. Roberts is making a huge impact on women’s wrestling as founder and CEO of the non-profit Wrestle Like a Girl, but many people don’t realize how successful Roberts was as a competitor. Here is the list of the seven U.S. women to come home with Yarygin Grand Prix golds, (with World medalist Sarah Hildebrandt also winning this year) and the years they did it:
Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix gold medals
Named Krasnoyarsk Tournament through 1993, then named in honor of late Ivan Yarygin
U.S. Women’s freestyle champions
2004 – Tela O’Donnell; 2004 – Iris Smith; 2005 – Sally Roberts; 2006 – Marcie Van Dusen; 2008 – Sally Roberts; 2010 – Kelsey Campbell; 2017 – Tamyra Mensah-Stock (152); 2018 – Tamyra Mensah-Stock (149); 2019 – Tamyra Mensah –Stock, 2019 – Sarah Hildebrandt
Menlo College, which participated in the first women’s college nationals in 2004, has never won a national title. Only six teams have ever been the women’s college national champions. The Oaks have a chance to come home with two of them this year. For most of the college season, Menlo has been ranked No. 1 in the NAIA, which created a national ranking because there will be a first NAIA Women’s National Invitational this year (set for Jamestown, N.D., March 15-16). This week, Menlo was also ranked No. 1 in the WCWA rankings, and will head into the WCWA Nationals as one of the team favorites. This program, which was launched by the late Hall of Fame coach Lee Allen, is in the heart of women’s wrestling hotbed California.
“The kids understand that there is a much bigger picture than themselves and that we have been around for a long time. There are a lot of people who have supported this program from the very beginning,” said Menlo Coach Joey Bareng. “We feel like we would be paying homage to the program, one of the first ever. It would be only fitting if we finally bring home a national title. The mindset is how we train them, to stay focused on the task at hand and don’t make it really bigger than it really is. It really isn’t, just another match, another person standing in front of you. We are relaxed, excited and happy about our progress. But we know this is just the beginning for our program.
While some of the Dave Schultz Memorial champions were wrestling in different weight classes than normal (Jacarra Winchester won her 2019 Schultz gold medal at 59 kg, two weights higher than her normal 55 kg), the champion at 65 kg, 2017 Junior World champion Maya Nelson, won a loaded weight class at the weight where she will be wrestling in 2019. “I am going to go that weight class and do my best there. Next year, I will go down to 62 kg. I want to do my best wherever I am at. To be the best in the world, I have to beat the best in the world. Every day, I am striving to be a World champion, and that’s my goal,” said Nelson.
This is the season for girls high school championships, both official and unofficial, and young women across the nation are having a chance to achieve one of the big goals in the sport, a state high school title. So far, there have been state tournaments for girls in Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, Virginia and Nevada. A number of nationally ranked wrestlers have won state titles already this year. Each week, we will list the ranked girls who won state titles:
No. 2 at 144 lbs. – Alara Boyd of Yorktown High School, Indiana state champion at 138
No. 3 at 100 lbs. – Sterling Dias of SLAM Academy, Nevada state champion at 106L
No. 7 at 132 lbs. – Morgan Norris of Reed High School, Nevada state champion at 137
No. 9 at 152 lbs. – Madison Ellis of South Anchorage High School, Alaska state champion at 160
No. 11 at 144 lbs. – McKenzie Cook of Homer High School, Alaska state champion at 145
No. 12 at 122 lbs. – Tatum Pine of Palo Verde High School, Nevada state champion at 126
No. 13 at 180 lbs. – Jayleen Sekona of South Anchorage High School, Alaska state champion at 189
No. 14 at 132 lbs. – Shelby Ottum of South Anchorage High School, Alaska state champion at 130
No. 15 at 112 lbs. – Starr Erikson of Nome High School, Alaska state champion at 112
No. 16 at 106 lbs. – Jevani Alejandro of Centennial High School, Nevada state champion at 106H
No. 16 at 225 lbs. – Debranna Bealer of Eielson High School, Alaska state champion at 235
No. 17 at 200 lbs. – Madeline Flight of Richmond High School, Indiana state champion at 195
No. 20 at 106 lbs. – Ciera Broukal of Bloomington South High School, Indiana state champion at 113
No. 20 at 117 lbs. – Elizabeth Schumaker of North Pole High School, Alaska state champion at 119
No. 20 at 135 lbs. – Brystel Charlie of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Alaska state champion at 135
Bottom Photo: Selma High School stars Alleida Martinez and Gracie Figueroa at their signing ceremony announcing the decision to attend Menlo College. Photo courtesy of Menlo College
In case you missed it, the 2018-19 women’s college season is heading into its most important national competition, as the annual WCWA National Championships are set for Feb. 8-9 at the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta, Ga.
At this time, three true freshman stars enter with a No. 1 WCWA national ranking in their weight class: Alleida Martinez of Menlo College at 109 pounds, Gracie Figueroa of Menlo College at 116 pounds and Jayden Laurent of Lakeland University at 143 pounds.
There was little doubt that these young women were expected to be successful in college. All three have been stars in USA Wrestling’s age-group national and international competition during their prep years. All three were ranked No. 1 in the National Girls High School rankings as seniors. And all of them surprisingly chose to stay within their home state to attend college.
Menlo College is one of the pioneer women’s college programs, going back to the early years of women’s college wrestling. Lakeland University, however, is a first-year women’s program and the first women’s college team in its state. Lakeland made big news with the signing of Laurent, shortly after the university announced the start of the program.
“It was huge for us. She was a high school superstar and just about every college in the country was going after her. We were excited to start the program and offer her the opportunity to stay close to home. She has a great following in Wisconsin, people who followed her over the years and watched her grow. She was excited about the opportunity to stay in touch with those people. We wanted to recruit her because of her talent and natural abilities. We have big goals at Lakeland, not only for her but for our team. Getting her gave us that instant credibility that we can attract high-level recruits,” said Lakeland head coach Ben Chapman.
Laurent came in with an amazing resume. In her senior year in high school, she placed third at the 2018 Senior U.S. Open, then was second in the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, which gave her the No. 3 spot on the Women’s Senior National Team. Laurent also wrestled on the 2018 UWW Junior World Team.
Since coming on campus, she has not lost a match. The coaching staff have not only enjoyed working with her, but have come to know more about her as a person.
“When we recruited her, she was shy, kind of timid. We weren’t sure what kind of personality she would have. She was a little soft spoken and kind of quiet. That has completely changed since we got to know her and built a good relationship with her. She loves to joke around, loves to laugh and is a great leader. Everyone knew she was a great wrestler. We weren’t sure how she would handle a leadership role. As the season went on, she was more comfortable around the coaches and the team. She has embraced the leadership role. She leads by example, when it comes to working hard and pushing herself, but also in uplifting the other girls and trying to get them to wrestle to their potential,” said Chapman.
The job of a college coaching staff is to help make their athletes improve, and Chapman has seen Laurent develop in the course of her first season in college.
“Her sheer athletic ability is undeniable. She can do things a majority of girls her age just can’t do. Her explosive power and strength makes her a really good athlete. That transfers onto the mat. She has some good technical skills but still has a lot she can learn. That is scary to other people, with her ability to improve with her wrestling technique. In the past, she could use her overall athleticism and strength to win matches. We have been working on fine-tuning her technique. We talk all the time about attention to detail, and that will help her take the next step in college and on the Senior level. It has been great to see the progress she has made,” he said.
Laurent has helped the Lakeland program get off to a good start, and recruiting for the second group of incoming athletes is going well. She will have the chance to put her extensive talents to the test, and represent this new college program at the upcoming WCWA Nationals.
“She has put herself in the position to win a national championship. We try not to focus on that. There’s the cliché ‘one match at a time.’ Being a freshman, we don’t want her to put too much stress and pressure on herself. We just want her to wrestle to the best of her ability. If she does that, she has a very good opportunity to win a national title,” said Chapman.
Alleida Martinez and Gracie Figueroa were both undefeated four-time state champions for Selma High School. They were both also members of the respected Titan Mercury Wrestling Club, and were able to win Cadet World medals for the United States as they climbed USA Wrestling’s age-group ladder.
When Martinez and Figueroa decided to both stay in-state and attend Menlo College together, it was big news in both California and on the national women’s wrestling scene. This didn’t just happen at the last minute, as Menlo was working hard for a number of years to set the table for this decision to be made.
“Every recruit we get into our school is difficult. We have a specific challenge, with the degrees limited and the cost of tuition. In their situation, they are the two best wrestlers in their weight classes coming in. We talked about it, before recruiting Gracie and Alleida, that it was going to take a few No. 1 athletes on our team in order to break through as a top-five team. We knew that was our plan from the beginning. We planned for this for the last four years,” said Menlo women’s coach Joey Bareng.
Part of the plan was making Menlo one of best teams in the WCWA, which would give these two super recruits an environment where they could excel on the mat. At the 2018 WCWA Nationals, Menlo placed fifth, with four All-Americans and a large number of tough wrestlers returning.
“I had been talking to one of their private coaches, and have followed them like everyone else. Getting them up for their visit was the important part, so they could see that they can get better with our program. We had kids on our team that could push them and wrestle them. If we didn’t have that in our room already, it might have been difficult. They were looking for a place that could take them beyond the college circuit, and they have found it here,” said Bareng.
Bareng and the coaching staff knew they had special talents joining the team. What they came to learn were that they were both also special people off the mat.
“We found out about the sweetness of both of them. They can come off as intimidating to the public, especially if you are outside looking in. Once you break into that inner-circle and you get that trust, you realize how sweet they really are. They are family people, which we noticed when we were recruiting them. They are family oriented, which is what we are building here at Menlo. You just don’t think that people who wrestle at that level, with that much tenacity, can be as sweet as they are. That is the No. 1 surprise that I learned,” said Bareng.
Martinez has made three age-group World teams, including winning a 2015 Cadet World silver medal and a 2016 Cadet World bronze medal. Add in a seventh place finish at the 2018 Junior World Championships, to boot. Her list of national-level titles is long, and covers both folkstyle and freestyle.
“My nickname for Alleida is smooth. She tends to make anything not look hard at all. Her face never changes when she wrestles and is under pressure. I put her through some workouts that would crush any Div. I man, or anybody in the world, and would create a change someone’s face. She just eats it up. She doesn’t blink an eye. Her strength is her poise. She keeps that poise, no matter what situation she is under,” said Bareng.
Figueroa boasts a 2016 Cadet World bronze medal and competed on three U.S. Cadet World Teams. She was also a member of the 2017 Junior World team. Like Martinez, Figueroa has a numerous national titles to her credit. The two athletes were making big news, side-by-side, for many years.
“Gracie is a little bit opposite of Alleida. I would use the word bully. She will beat you with her intimidation. She seems to go and just take the move that she wants. She can be a little bit more forceful and powerful, and she walks around a tournament that way. That works well for her, especially if the opponent knows who she is. Just like Alleida, she has that poise as well, even though she is wrestling with such intensity. That intensity stays; it does not come down at all. She is a competitor and it shows on the mat. She does not want to give up any position. Even with girls bigger than her, she does not want to give up a takedown. She hates it. You can just see it. She wears it on her sleeve a little bit more than Alleida might,” said Bareng.
Both have not lost a college match since coming to Menlo. According to Bareng, they don’t let any moment scare them, because they have been in tough situations before. They know they have stepped on a big stage in the past and performed well.
“I am learning every day, just how good they actually are. In fact, I don’t fully understand the extent of their potential and it is exciting. I know for a fact that they haven’t been pushed to that level yet. In the room, sometimes the assistant coaches will have it happen where you can see it. But out in a match, at this level, the opposition hasn’t even been close,” said Bareng.
As coaches, part of the plan at Menlo is to support their growth, while not trying to change who they already are.
“Their mindset is to do everything that they have always done. They understand they have countless hours of practice under their belt and they were born to do this. You can see it in their wrestling. On the coaching side, we try not to get in the way of that. You don’t fix what is not broken. You just help it along. We ask them what they need, and what we can do to facilitate environments where they can be successful. I have seen an increase in level since they got here,” said Bareng.
In the first 15 years of women’s college national tournaments, only four athletes have won four national titles. Victoria Anthony and Helen Maroulis of Simon Fraser reached the feat in 2014. Emily Webster of Oklahoma City won her fourth title as a senior in 2015. At last year’s WCWA Nationals, Kayla Miracle of Campbellsville closed out her career with title No. 4. The first step to reaching this elevated status is winning as a freshman
These three No. 1 ranked stars are not the only freshmen who have a legitimate shot to win the WCWA Nationals on their first try. Four other freshmen come into the event with No. 2 national rankings: Junette Caldera of Jamestown at 101, Felicity Taylor of McKendree at 116, Ashlynn Ortega of King at 143 and Serena Woldring of Simon Fraser at 191.
WOMEN’S WRESTLING NOTES
Tamyra Mensah-Stock became the first U.S. athlete to win the Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix three times when she tore through the 72 kg weight class in Krasnoyarsk last weekend. She not only won all of her Yarygin golds in consecutive years, but her record-setting third title came wrestling up a weight class. Mensah scored a pin, a technical fall and a solid 9-4 win in her three matches on the way to the title. This is not the weight where she will compete this year, but it offered a good test for her in the early season.
The first U.S. woman to win more than one Yarygin gold medal was two-time World bronze medalist Sally Roberts, who came home with Yarygin titles in 2005 and 2008. Roberts is making a huge impact on women’s wrestling as founder and CEO of the non-profit Wrestle Like a Girl, but many people don’t realize how successful Roberts was as a competitor. Here is the list of the seven U.S. women to come home with Yarygin Grand Prix golds, (with World medalist Sarah Hildebrandt also winning this year) and the years they did it:
Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix gold medals
Named Krasnoyarsk Tournament through 1993, then named in honor of late Ivan Yarygin
U.S. Women’s freestyle champions
2004 – Tela O’Donnell; 2004 – Iris Smith; 2005 – Sally Roberts; 2006 – Marcie Van Dusen; 2008 – Sally Roberts; 2010 – Kelsey Campbell; 2017 – Tamyra Mensah-Stock (152); 2018 – Tamyra Mensah-Stock (149); 2019 – Tamyra Mensah –Stock, 2019 – Sarah Hildebrandt
Menlo College, which participated in the first women’s college nationals in 2004, has never won a national title. Only six teams have ever been the women’s college national champions. The Oaks have a chance to come home with two of them this year. For most of the college season, Menlo has been ranked No. 1 in the NAIA, which created a national ranking because there will be a first NAIA Women’s National Invitational this year (set for Jamestown, N.D., March 15-16). This week, Menlo was also ranked No. 1 in the WCWA rankings, and will head into the WCWA Nationals as one of the team favorites. This program, which was launched by the late Hall of Fame coach Lee Allen, is in the heart of women’s wrestling hotbed California.
“The kids understand that there is a much bigger picture than themselves and that we have been around for a long time. There are a lot of people who have supported this program from the very beginning,” said Menlo Coach Joey Bareng. “We feel like we would be paying homage to the program, one of the first ever. It would be only fitting if we finally bring home a national title. The mindset is how we train them, to stay focused on the task at hand and don’t make it really bigger than it really is. It really isn’t, just another match, another person standing in front of you. We are relaxed, excited and happy about our progress. But we know this is just the beginning for our program.
While some of the Dave Schultz Memorial champions were wrestling in different weight classes than normal (Jacarra Winchester won her 2019 Schultz gold medal at 59 kg, two weights higher than her normal 55 kg), the champion at 65 kg, 2017 Junior World champion Maya Nelson, won a loaded weight class at the weight where she will be wrestling in 2019. “I am going to go that weight class and do my best there. Next year, I will go down to 62 kg. I want to do my best wherever I am at. To be the best in the world, I have to beat the best in the world. Every day, I am striving to be a World champion, and that’s my goal,” said Nelson.
This is the season for girls high school championships, both official and unofficial, and young women across the nation are having a chance to achieve one of the big goals in the sport, a state high school title. So far, there have been state tournaments for girls in Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, Virginia and Nevada. A number of nationally ranked wrestlers have won state titles already this year. Each week, we will list the ranked girls who won state titles:
No. 2 at 144 lbs. – Alara Boyd of Yorktown High School, Indiana state champion at 138
No. 3 at 100 lbs. – Sterling Dias of SLAM Academy, Nevada state champion at 106L
No. 7 at 132 lbs. – Morgan Norris of Reed High School, Nevada state champion at 137
No. 9 at 152 lbs. – Madison Ellis of South Anchorage High School, Alaska state champion at 160
No. 11 at 144 lbs. – McKenzie Cook of Homer High School, Alaska state champion at 145
No. 12 at 122 lbs. – Tatum Pine of Palo Verde High School, Nevada state champion at 126
No. 13 at 180 lbs. – Jayleen Sekona of South Anchorage High School, Alaska state champion at 189
No. 14 at 132 lbs. – Shelby Ottum of South Anchorage High School, Alaska state champion at 130
No. 15 at 112 lbs. – Starr Erikson of Nome High School, Alaska state champion at 112
No. 16 at 106 lbs. – Jevani Alejandro of Centennial High School, Nevada state champion at 106H
No. 16 at 225 lbs. – Debranna Bealer of Eielson High School, Alaska state champion at 235
No. 17 at 200 lbs. – Madeline Flight of Richmond High School, Indiana state champion at 195
No. 20 at 106 lbs. – Ciera Broukal of Bloomington South High School, Indiana state champion at 113
No. 20 at 117 lbs. – Elizabeth Schumaker of North Pole High School, Alaska state champion at 119
No. 20 at 135 lbs. – Brystel Charlie of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Alaska state champion at 135
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