PARK CITY – Kansas City Turner’s Arianna Ortiz couldn’t have been more than 5 feet away from the spot on the Hartman Arena wrestling mat she occupied on a disappointing afternoon almost a year ago.
 
Once again, there were tears and emotion for Ortiz on Thursday in the Class 6-5A girls state wrestling championships. Only this time, there was no shock. Ortiz, a senior, took a few seconds to savor a 4-3 decision in the 100-pound final over gritty freshman Mykayle Sutton of Salina South to complete her high school career with her first state title.
 
“The one thing that’s worse than losing is losing in the state finals and getting pinned,” said Ortiz, who experienced that in her final match last season against Derby’s Amara Ehsa. “Right up until this season started, I kind of looked at it like either I suck it up and keep on wrestling, or I take this and I don’t win a state title.
 
“You’ve kind of got to get over it.”
 
No doubt similar feelings have existed for Hays’ Sarah Zimmerman, Olathe North’s Kaylan Hitchcock and Wichita West’s Dru Johnson. On Thursday, each joined Ortiz as first-time champions who have gone through the experience of falling one victory shy.

 
Zimmerman, a two-time state runner-up, pinned former state champion Anna Cullens of Hutchinson to win the 110-pound title. Hitchcock, a finalist last year as a freshman, got her first title by blanking Garden City freshman Julissa Rodriguez 8-0 at 120 pounds. And Johnson finally gained the upper hand in her third state title match against Olathe West’s Makayla Rivera, winning 9-1 at 190 pounds.
 
Ortiz was the No. 1-ranked wrestler at 101 last season when Ehsa – who notched her second state title Thursday in the 105-pound class – stunned her late in the first period.
 
“I kind of struggle sometimes just taking Superman shots with my arms out, and not good shots,” Ortiz said. “I got caught because I was kind of being stupid. I’ve been cleaning up my technique and being more refined and being clean with things so I can’t get caught in situations like that.”
 
Ortiz, a four-time state qualifier and three-time medalist, claimed her first title in her 100^th career high school match. She scored takedowns in each of the first two periods, then fought off a game effort from the fourth-ranked Sutton after Sutton cut her deficit to 4-3 with a reversal midway through the third.
 
“She’s short and stocky and I’m a little longer, so I think that helped me,” Ortiz said. “I would definitely say strength is her asset. She can muscle things out and I can be a little more swifty and fast. Kind of elegant, I guess.”
 
After shaking hands with Sutton and Salina South’s coaches, Ortiz jumped into the arms of Turner coach Paul Hansen, her final act in a 31-2 season.
 
“I wanted it,” Ortiz said. “I knew I wanted it more than anyone in this gym.”
 

GARDNER EDGERTON'S DAVIS SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATES UPSET-FILLED 135 BRACKET TO WIN STATE TITLE

Gardner Edgerton senior Shelby Davis finished state with a victory for the third straight season, but this year’s ending was much different.

After taking third place each of the past two years, Davis finally reached the finals on her last go-around. She ended up securing a pin against Shawnee Heights sophomore Madison Freeland midway through the second period to win the Class 6-5A state title at 135 and put the exclamation point on her high school career with a pinfall victory in the finals.

Davis lost in the blood round at regionals as a freshman, so she felt “phenomenal” just to reach state and place at all.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” Davis said. “Then my junior year, I had higher hopes for myself. Not necessarily a let down, but it was not where I wanted to be.”

Davis said that motivation pushed her during the summer and kept carrying her throughout all of the practices this season. Once she put in all that work, she said the next step was trusting that that work would pay off.

“It was really just not doubting myself because doubting leads to mess-ups,” Davis said.

She said that not all of her victories were the prettiest, but she realized that as a senior it was more important to “leave it all out on the mat” and giving it her all.

Davis said it gave her an extra sense of accomplishment to win a bracket that was so stacked that multiple reigning state runners-up lost in the first round. Davis, who entered state ranked No. 1 in the KWCA rankings, ended up being one of the few upsets on her side of the bracket as a No. 5 seed. She ended up earning a pinfall victory over top-seeded sophomore Kamanhi Jackson of JC Harmon.

In the finals, Davis matched up with Shawnee Heights sophomore Madison Freeland, who reached the finals with three quick pins despite being the 11-seed.

“To see that she had pinned her way there, it was not necessarily unsettling, but I kept that in the back of my mind,” Davis said.

Davis said she did not get to see any of Freeland’s matches before the finals, but her coaches had picked up little things that they brought to her. Their on-the-fly scouting nearly paid off.

“I remembered that my coaches said that there’s two ways that it could go and I tried to defend one of the ways and she did the other thing.”

Freeland sent Davis down to the mat on her back and into a cradle.

“There was definitely a moment where I think my parents had heart attacks, but I tried to keep my cool,” Davis said.

Seconds away from becoming Freeland’s fourth victim in two days, Davis said her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in.

“My dad calls it the third-monkey mindset,” Davis said. “Noah only let two monkeys on the Ark. You got to be the third monkey trying to get on the Ark. I told myself that I refuse to lose to a pin in the state finals.”

Davis got away and both wrestlers got back to their feet.

“It was one of those things like, ‘OK, she’s done her part, now it’s my turn,’” Davis said. “That kind of lit a fire under me that I needed.”

Davis turned the tables, earning the pinfall victory to clinch a state title in her final high school wrestling match.

“It was almost poetic justice to pin somebody like that,” Davis said. “I do a lot of extra conditioning. I can go all three rounds. I feel like I proved that in the Manhattan match (with freshman Alayna Slifer). I feel like I have one of the biggest tanks in the state.

“But to have someone whose main way to win is just a quick toss straight to your back, to pin them makes it that much better because you didn’t force them to go all three rounds with you. You’re confident enough in yourself.”

Davis said it’s been a great four years of high school wrestling. She’s also excited to get started wrestling in college at Grandview next year, joining her old Sunflower League foe in Madyson Gray. Before that though, she’ll spend the summer competing with Lawrence Elite and on Team Kansas.

“I will probably never wrestle folkstyle again, so I’ll just try to soak up as much knowledge from as many great coaches in Kansas before I go to Iowa and probably get my butt kicked by Mady Gray again,” Davis said.  

WICHITA WEST’S JOHNSON COMPLETES UNBEATEN SEASON AT 190
 
Wichita West junior Dru Johnson defeated a two-time state champion and the top-ranked 190-pound wrestler in all classes on Thursday.
 
But Johnson wasn’t making too big of a deal about her victory over an all-too-familiar opponent.
 
“You don’t celebrate putting your pants on in the morning,” Johnson said after capping a 24-0 season with a 9-1 major decision over Olathe West’s Makayla Rivera. “It’s something you need to do. It was a good match, great competitor.
 
“But at the end of the day, that’s what I needed to do. I’m not going to celebrate something I should have done a long time ago.”
 
Johnson improved her career record to 68-2, with the two losses coming to Rivera in the 6-5A 235-pound state finals. Rivera was trailing when she scored a reversal and pinned Johnson late in the second period of their matchup two years ago.
 
Last February, Rivera held the upper hand throughout in a 6-0 decision.
 
“Last year I wrestled like a scrub,” Johnson said. “That’s really all there is to it. I just wrestled bad.
 
“Obviously, film helps. But it’s more what did I do wrong? What can I fix with me? Seeing her in the finals was good. I don’t like easy matches.”
 
Johnson set the tone Thursday with an early takedown in the first period. She then put Rivera’s bid for a three-peat in severe jeopardy with a reversal and near-fall in the closing seconds of the second. After scoring an escape in the third, Rivera tried to go on the offensive, but Johnson wouldn’t budge.
 
“We’ve kind of looked at those past matches and saw what she did,” West coach Jason Gamble said. “It wasn’t really learning what needed to be done differently. It was just trying to stay on top and not get deterred, not get frustrated and keep working your game.”

 

OLATHE NORTH'S HITCHCOCK AVENGES STATE RUNNER-UP FINISH, CELEBRATES IN COACH'S CORNER WITH HER FATHER

When Kaylan Hitchcock felt the sting of losing the Class 6-5A 115-pound state final last year, she already knew exactly where she needed to go to make sure didn't have that feeling again.

She went right back to the mats.

“I made that a big point that I needed to get a lot of matches in over the summer and really work hard in the wrestling room,” Hitchcock said. “Also I hit the weight room over the summer and have been doing that this year in school.”

Hitchcock said she knew she needed to get a little bit stronger while also working on her mentality and the mental side of wrestling.

“You gotta always be mentally strong cuz you never know what situation you're gonna get in,” Hitchcock said. “You gotta fight out of it.”

Her hard work paid off as she beat Julisaa Rodriguez of Garden City in the Class 6-5A 120-pound final to win the state title and went 51-1 this season, setting the state record for wins in a single season. Hitchcock also set the single-season record for pins with 44.

"it really feels amazing," Hitchcock said. "I feel like all the hard work is paid off. But I had got give props to my teammates. I really couldn't have done them without them. My workout partner Makenzie (Sharp) in the room really pushed me and just made me a stronger and better wrestler.

"So it feels surreal and just unimaginable. It still kind of hasn't hit me yet that I'm a state champ, but it definitely felt great in the moment."
“All of them were awesome, amazing experiences, but nothing will come close to this one,” Dylan said. “As a head wrestling coach, you always dream of coaching your own kid in the finals and winning that state title.”

Dylan said he was fortunate enough to have two girls, but he didn’t envision at the time that girls wrestling would become as popular as it is today.

“When the opportunity came and she came to me and said she wanted to try wrestling … it was a dream come true,” Dylan said. “Then to be able to actually coach her in that finals match, it was a very surreal, amazing moment.”

Unlike her father coaching other wrestlers, Kaylan does have anything else to compare her experience to since she’s always had him in her corner.

"I've never really had anyone else, but the fact that I got to share that moment with him was really special,” Kaylan said. “I love him so much and he works really hard with the girls and the fact that it paid off and we got that state title really meant a lot to me and him.”
 

HAYS’ ZIMMERMAN PUTS GHOSTS OF PAST STATE TOURNAMENTS TO REST
 
Hays senior Sarah Zimmerman couldn’t avoid some old feelings when she walked into Hartman Arena on Tuesday, the eve of the Class 6-5A state tournament.
 
Memories of championship match losses to Wichita North’s Dialeen French in 2021 and Larisa Garcia last season hit hard.
 
“All the teams were warming up and getting an extra practice in,” Zimmerman said. “And that feeling of losing last year came back to me. I had to step out of the room. Our coach was talking to all the other coaches in our league and I was like, ‘Can we get out of here?’”
 
Zimmerman was delighted to be there Thursday after backing up a regional championship victory over Hutchinson’s Anna Cullens with a second-period pin over the senior, who won a state title two years ago competing for Wellington.
 
Zimmerman and Cullens dealt each other their lone losses this season, but the Hays standout took the rubber match to end her high school career atop the stand as a four-time state medalist.
 
Zimmerman, who pinned Cullens late in the finals at the Dodge City regional, overcame an early deficit and gained the upper hand midway through their title match.
 
“She’s just a beast in neutral and she always gets that takedown, so I kind of expected it,” said Zimmerman, who finished the season 31-1. “I was just trying my hardest to get out of that and just keep moving.
 
“Once I got that lock-up for the cradle, I knew I had to take that opportunity and go with it. She’s pretty good at scrambling through those things, but I stuck it back and I was just holding on for dear life.”
 
An emotional Zimmerman prevented a repeat of 2022’s season-ending scenario, when she knocked off Garcia in the regional final only to be pinned by her in the closing seconds of their 109-pound final. On Thursday, Zimmerman prevailed in a talented weight class that also included Garcia, who finished fifth in her final state appearance.
 
“There was a lot of work that went into it,” Zimmerman said. “The nerves were kind of getting to me as we got close to the final. I just had to work to try to wrestle through those nerves.”

 

OLATHE SOUTH’S REDMOND, BONNER SPRINGS’ STEAN MAKE IT 3-FOR-3

Nicole Redmond and Olivia Stean have more than a few things in common.

Both are juniors. Both dedicated their state championships last year to their late friend Hayleigh Wempe. Both followed up by winning their third state title without losing to a Kansas competitor in either of the past two seasons.

But one of the other things they have in common is that both remain taken aback by their own success, even as almost everyone else is no longer surprised by their impressive triumphs.

Redmond, who finished 48-1, won her third state title with three pins leading into a 4-0 decision over Seaman's Koti Best.

“It always feels great to win a state title, especially since I’m a three-timer trying to go for my fourth time,” Redmond said. “I’m still in shock.”

It’s usually her opponents left in shock, not by the outcome but by the speed in which Redmond dispatches them. Her accumulated match time was four minutes heading into her match with Best.

“I try to go as quick as possible, if it’s there,” Redmond said. “If not, then I’m OK with it. I’ll go three rounds, but every time I just do my outside shot, a lot of girls just fall to their back. So I’m like, ‘Well, it’s there.’ I take the opportunity if it’s there.”

Best was able to slow down Redmond’s breakneck speed though.

“I like to do the chicken wing a lot, so she definitely found a way to stop that,” Redmond said. “I couldn’t turn her. … She has a flexible shoulder, so it was hard to turn her to pin her.”

Redmond is hoping to put together an undefeated record as a senior, but she said there’s no chance she’ll put that goal over facing as many of the top competitors as she can from across the country.

“I'm just trying to seek competition and I'm looking for a challenge,” Redmond said. “I'm trying to challenge myself and I'm trying to chase competition to better myself.”

Even if she suffers a loss next year, she said that just means there are still better wrestlers than herself out there. That only gives her fuel to push herself more in her quest to be the best.

As for Stean, she has the same goal of finishing her high school career as a four-timer. Stean earned four straight first-period pins to clinch the 170-pound state title, her third straight.

In terms of the chase for perfection, Stean has already accomplished that each of the past two seasons.

“It’s still hard to wrap my head around,” Stean said. “It’s still the same amount of shock as it was my freshman year, if I’m being completely honest.

“It’s just an amazing experience, a nerve-wracking experience, all of the above.”

It might still be a shock for Stean, but it has not been a surprise for all of the spectators watching her matches. The only time the fans were shocked was when Valley Center senior Grace Timmons earned a takedown on Stean and looked for a split second like a pin was possible.

But even at that moment, Stean’s coaches did not seem to be very concerned. Neither coach in her corner flinched, waiting for her to take back control.

“I'm really grateful for those Bonner girl coaches,” Stean said. “They have really supported me and really made me believe that I am the wrestler that I am.”

She also appreciates assistant coach Dale Taylor dressing to the nines for her state performance.

“Dale was supposed to have the orange and black suit last year, but it just didn’t fit him,” Stean said. “So we turned it up this year and then he got the hat with the feather. But yeah, he’s just stylish all the time.”

Stean said the key for her in that moment was to step back and think about getting back to what she does best.

“Just got to wait for your opponent to slip up and then that’s when you take advantage,” she said.

Sure enough, another aggressive effort from Timmons gave Stean the chance to flip her onto the mat and secure the pin 1:33 into the match.

Now her eyes are on the fourth, which she’s still not willing to take for granted as certainty in the slightest.

“I’m just looking to take home that fourth title,” Stean said. “Just scared, but we’ll get through it.”

Maybe it’s her anxiousness that helps her avoid the pitfalls and quickly recover from the few she actually suffers.
 

JUNCTION CITY'S VILLANUEVA SPEEDS THROUGH 115-BRACKET TO STATE TITLE, NOT READY FOR SEASON TO END

Junction City freshman Bre Villanueva put on a clinic as she navigated the state bracket to win the 115-pound state title as the seventh seed.

But hours after the Class 6-5A state girls wrestling tournament had concluded, Villanueva still felt like her victory had not set in yet.

“I’ve accomplished many things, but this one just seems to be the hardest to sit down and allow myself to feel accomplished. 

“Right now I’m still feeling like I need to wrestle, but that’s alright.”

Villanueva advanced past the first two rounds with two pins in 46 seconds. She was not able to pin Lainie Burkhart of Eisenhower, but controlled the action the entire time on the way to a 7-0 decision.

Her finals match with Tionna Napue of Hays took a little bit longer than her opening matches, but Villanueva ultimately got back to her pinning ways.

After pulling off a double-leg takedown, Villanueva followed up with an unconventional form of the chicken wing.

“Instead of running it around the head, she runs it straight over the head like a stack,” Junction City coach Mike Goodwin said.

Villanueva earned near-fall points with that move a couple times, before finally using the chicken wing to secure the pin. Villanueva said that when she finally got Napue with her back on the mat, she knew it was time to finish the match.

“Before I stepped foot on the mat, I was excited,” Villanueva said. “Then when I stepped foot on it, I was drained. So when I finally was able to get her on her back to where I knew I could stick her, I was like, ‘All or nothing.’”

Goodwin said he’s known for a long time that Villanueva was capable of winning at this level. He met Villanueva back when she was just starting elementary school.

“She was wrestling then, so I’ve known Bre had that potential for a long time,” Goodwin said. “We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for her to get into high school.”

Now that she’s arrived, Villanueva wasted little time delivering on those expectations. Goodwin said the plan for Villanueva’s sophomore year is to replicate what’s she’s already been doing, with a lot of freestyle wrestling and some extra wrestling in this summer.

“Summer wrestling makes winter champions is how we put it around our place,” Goodwin said. “It’s hard to go all year, but we like to do as many as we can in the summertime for freestyle. That really elevates their game in folkstyle.”

For Villanueva, she’s not focused on the specifics when it comes to future accomplishments or goals.

“I guess it's more of the trust in what God has planned for me,” Villanueva said. “I know that so far so good and no matter what has happened, I've overcome a lot of things. So I guess it's just trusting in the process.”

 

GODDARD’S GOODWIN CLOSES CAREER WITH SECOND STATE TITLE
 
Goddard’s AshLynn Goodwin had the look of an experienced wrestler when she took the mat for the 140-pound final against Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Jayla Johnson.
 
Aided in part by her signature slide-by move, the Lions senior scored four takedowns and later pinned Johnson midway through the third period to win her second state title. Goodwin, the top-ranked wrestler in all classes at 140, finished the season at 41-1.
 
“It was just there multiple times,” Goodwin said of her takedown move. “I felt like I was in control the whole match.”
 
Goodwin, who won the Division I (now 6-5A) title at 143 pounds as a sophomore, won her 102^nd match over the past three seasons. She returned to the top of the medal stand after finishing third at 143 a year ago.
 
Goodwin was all business in her first meeting with Johnson, scoring an early takedown. After Johnson got her first point on an escape, Goodwin countered with another takedown before the end of the first period and maintained control the rest of the way.
 
Goodwin was dominant this season after a junior campaign in which she lost in the regional finals, landing her on the same side of the bracket with Leavenworth standout Hannah Jackson. Jackson bumped Goodwin into the consolation bracket with an overtime victory in the quarterfinals, and went on to win the 6-5A title.
 
“AshLynn had a couple little heartaches her freshman and junior years, and it just motivated her to get better,” Goddard coach Brian Means said. “She knew she had to add to her offensive repertoire and she developed three new takedowns.
 
“She has one of the best slide-bys in the state and everybody knows it, but when she added those new takedown moves, that just made her extremely tough to beat.”
 
Goodwin’s lone loss this season came to a Missouri wrestler at the Kansas City Stampede in December. A top national junior competitor in the offseason, Goodwin was fond of her high school wrestling experience.
 
“These still rank pretty high because I get to represent my school,” Goodwin said. “They’re not the top tournaments I compete in, but they’re still pretty high up the list.”
 
Means said Goodwin’s work ethic will be missed.
 
“She’s extremely special,” he said. “This has been AshLynn for four years. She comes in, does her job, works hard every day and doesn’t miss offseason.
 
“She’s had over 100 matches since last year’s state finals and that experience really shows.”
 

LEAVENWORTH BRINGS HOME 2 INDIVIDUAL CHAMPS AS JACKSON WINS 2ND, JOHNSON WINS 1ST

Leavenworth had a pretty good feeling that they’d leave the Class 6-5A girls wrestling state tournament with a state champion in their group. 

The Pioneers were extremely happy when it ended up being two of them.

Senior Hannah Jackson clinched her second straight state title while junior Avari Johnson reached the top of the podium for the first time.

Johnson earned a 18-0 tech fall and 9-2 decision to reach the 145 semifinals without much trouble. But she knew from the beginning that she’d need to be top-ranked Ashley Arroyo of Dodge City to reach the final.

Johnson’s only loss this season was when Arroyo pinned her in the final of the Ladycat Classic back in December.

“I thought that maybe that that would actually be a gift that we see her before the big show because (Johnson) loves the routine,” Leavenworth coach Matt Long said.

Both wrestlers traded reversals to go along with a point against Arroyo grabbing Johnson’s singlet to block a Russian tie takedown, and Johnson getting a stalling call to even things up 2-2 at the end of regulation.

Arroyo went for a shoot in overtime, but Johnson countered and secured the takedown for the 4-2 sudden victory.

“It was a very exciting match, the sudden victory just made it better,” Long said.

Johnson described the victory as a shock, even more than the eventual finals win.

“I couldn’t believe that I had won because I’d been drilling to beat her the entire season,” Johnson said. “Then after my finals match, it’s just crazy to think that I’m a state champion.”

Her championship match with Campbell Mermis of Spring Hill was not as close. Johnson pulled out to an early 5-1 lead and held on for a 6-1 decision.

If Johnson’s path to a state title was more of a rollercoaster, Jackson’s journey would be better described as smooth sailing.

Jackson pinned her first two opponents in the first round before a 13-0 major decision advanced her to her fourth straight state finals appearance. Jackson beat Hailey Conley of Olathe North in the championship match, earning a 1-0 victory that despite the score never seemed to be in doubt.

“We were 100% confident that that girl could never actually score on us offensively,” Long said. “She doesn’t ever really take Hannah out of position, so I was not surprised that it was going to be a 1- to 2-point spread. Every time we’ve wrestled her, it’s been close.”

Jackson finished her high school career with four league and regional titles, two state titles and two state runner-up finishes. She accomplished all that at 191, 170, 143 and 235 weight classes.

“I feel like it really shows what my wrestling can do and what I can achieve with wrestling and how far my career can actually go,” Jackson said.

She moved up from 143 to 235, but at no point was she or her coach concerned with sizing up with heavyweights.

“Hannah is ridiculously strong,” Long said. “She is the strongest girl in our school. She’s just as strong as some of the guys in our school.

“It was an easy transition.”

In fact, Long said that Jackson did not allow a single offensive point this year as her opponents’ only scores came from reversals.

“It started out as this kind of challenge, to see how many points I could rack up in certain matches, if I could get tech falls or win with major decisions,” Jackson said.

Jackson also took it as a point of pride that she was able to accomplish consistent success at every weight class in which she competed.

“It feels good,” Jackson said. “From the start of the season, one of my top goals was to get another state championship.”

Now, her teammate wants to duplicate that success, although Johnson doesn't want to get ahead of herself.

"I want to be a state champion again next year, but I'm more focused on what can I do during the summer to get even better so I don't make the same mistakes that I made this year," Johnson said.
 

DERBY’S EHSA ADDS TO CAREER RESUME
 
First girls state placer. First girls state champion. And now, Amara Ehsa is Derby’s first to win multiple state titles.
 
The Panther junior added another achievement to her growing wrestling resume Thursday, pinning Dodge City sophomore Jessica Rivera in the first period to win the 6-5A 105-pound title. Ehsa’s 30^th victory of the season gave her back-to-back state championships.
 
Ehsa raised two fingers on both hands after winning a season rubber match against Rivera, who finished 32-5. The wrestlers squared off three times, with Rivera pinning Ehsa at the Valley Center Invitational in early December and Ehsa returning the favor in two postseason meetings.
 
“At the beginning of the season I had the flu so bad. So bad,” said Ehsa, who lost to Rivera midway through the second period in the Valley Center title match. “But even when I was sick, my shots were in there every time. I knew that my shots could get there.”
 
Midway through the first period, Ehsa summoned a chin whip she used to pin Rivera in the Dodge City regional finals, and the move worked again. Ehsa finished the match in 90 seconds – 23 seconds faster than her regional victory.
 
“She had to live with that all year,” Derby coach Kelly Heincker said of Ehsa’s early-season defeat. “We wrestled her at regionals and we beat her, but you sit there and wonder, it’s 1-1. Now what?”
 
Heincker knew Ehsa’s preparedness was on point. After pinning Kansas City Turner’s Arianna Ortiz in last year’s 101-pound final – a victory flooded in Ehsa’s raw, post-match emotion – she attacked her offseason training. Ehsa competed in freestyle and Greco-Roman, attended summer camp and worked out with quality partners.
 
“She’s just continued doing what she did last year – show up and outwork everyone,” Heincker said. “She’s improved in a lot of technical areas. Her shots are better. She doesn’t always get to display that. But I think the biggest thing for her is improving her positions and not putting herself at risk.”
 
All of which can be attributed to experience. Ehsa had it Thursday, feeling comfortable as she took the mat for her second state final.
 
“Last year, I hadn’t wrestled the girl I saw in the finals, but this year I did,” Ehsa said. “It definitely gave me more confidence and I knew how to handle myself.”
 

MANHATTAN’S ROSARIO DELIVERS FOR DEPLOYED DAD
 
Parvin Rosario started a nine-month military deployment in Poland in December, about the time his daughter, Sage, started her first full season of wrestling for the Manhattan Indians.
 
Dad has been able to follow the sophomore standout’s matches all season via the internet, and that didn’t change for Sage’s 155-pound final against Newton’s Jaymie Murry on Thursday.
 
“I really wanted to put on a show for him,” said Rosario, who won a state title last year in an abbreviated season after her family moved from Alabama to Kansas. “Early that morning, I asked him what he wanted me to do and he wanted me to do a sweep single with an inside trip. That’s what I went in with the intention of doing.”
 
Rosario’s dad watched her pin Murry late in the first period to complete a 35-0 season. For the second straight year, Rosario won all four of her state matches by fall.
 
Rosario hasn’t lost in 44 Kansas high school matches. Last year, she moved to Manhattan after helping Daphne (Ala.) High School win a state girls wrestling title with her individual championship. Because the sport is not sanctioned by Alabama’s high school athletic association, Rosario was eligible to compete immediately with the Indians after moving to Manhattan. Rosario won Centennial League, regional and state titles last season, finishing 9-0.
 
“This year, it felt way different, mainly because I got a full year with our coaching staff,” Rosario said. “We were able to work on stuff and carry that into the tournament. Just being around the Kansas girls and seeing how determined and hard-working they are really made it better.”
 
Rosario, a talented boxer who won the 154-pound junior female division title at the National Junior Olympics last summer, said she made big improvements in her wrestling over the course of a year.
 
“My coaches really worked one on one with me and implemented moves that work for me,” Rosario said. “They even helped me cardio-wise and just with me maturing, I’m really starting to understand the sport of wrestling. I feel like I’m way better than last year.”
 

TARBET BECOMES GARDEN CITY’S FIRST GIRLS CHAMP
 
Garden City’s Maya Tarbet got a late start to her sophomore wrestling season, sitting out the first semester as a transfer from Ulysses.
 
Suffice it to say she made up for lost time Thursday.
 
Tarbet became the Buffaloes’ first girls wrestling champion, scoring a 7-0 decision over Salina Central junior Lydia Dong in the 125-pound final. It was the second state medal for Tarbet, who finished sixth at 120 as a Ulysses freshman in the Class 4-1A state tournament.
 
“I’m proud to be Garden City’s first female champion on the wall,” said Tarbet, who knew several of the girls and boys in Garden City’s program from junior wrestling prior to her family’s move. “It’s gone really well. The team was really welcoming to me.”
 
Tarbet began competing after the holiday break and made an impact, posting a 24-7 record that culminated with her emerging from a strong field of 125-pound competitors. She was ranked fifth behind Dodge City’s Ariana De La Rosa, Washburn Rural’s Addison Broxterman, Great Bend’s Daizy Gomez and Dong.
 
Gomez dealt Tarbet three of her losses this season, most recently in the Dodge City regional semifinals. But Tarbet got her revenge with a third-period pin of Gomez that sent her to the championship match.
 
“She gradually improved as the season went on and just bought in to what we were trying to teach her,” Garden City coach Carlos Prieto said. “Maya’s a sponge and it paid off for her.”
 
As one of two Garden City finalists along with 120-pound freshman Julissa Rodriguez, Tarbet helped the Buffaloes finish second in the 6-5A team race. Garden City finished one spot ahead of last year’s team champion and Western Athletic Conference rival Dodge City.
 
“I just worked really hard in practice and I stayed in practice almost every day,” said Tarbet, who was 27-6 at Ulysses. “I just want to be good.
 
“I kind of had a good feeling about (the championship match). I just let it flow and did what I needed to do.”