Labelling Wellsville’s semifinal round Friday at the Class 4A girls state wrestling as disastrous is perhaps a bit of a misnomer.
 
After all, among the many definitions of the word disaster comes such phrases as “catastrophic” or “a complete failure.”
 
And while another phrase, “extremely unfortunate,” does appear more fitting, the Eagles 0-of-5 showing in the round didn’t leave their title chances in total ruin.
 
“To be honest, as bad as those semifinals were, to go 5-for-7 in the quarterfinals was huge,” Wellsville coach Kyle Patton said. “0 and 5 in the semifinals, wasn’t great obviously, but most of those matches we weren’t supposed to win. We kind of knew the team we were, a back door team.”
 
Now the rest of Class 4A knows it as well. After dropping from leading the tournament going into the semifinals to sitting sixth coming out of that round, Wellsville bounced back like a true champion.
 
Putting the disappointment behind them, the Eagles showed up and showed out on Saturday and did just enough work on the backside that they were able to lock up the state championship before the start of the championship round. Wellsville finished with five state placers and scored 101.5 points, winning the program’s first-ever state championship by a mere 2.5 points over runner-up Colby.
 

 
“It means so much, to me especially,” Wellsville senior Olive Dubois said. “My freshman year, it was only me and two other girls that had ever wrestled before. So in four years to come out and now win state, it just means so much. … We have amazing coaches and they really help us get through the hard matches.”
 
And the hard times.
 
“They knew from us that they had plenty of chances to come back and win this thing,” Patton said. “I knew what we had to try to get and we just got it done. Everything lined up somehow.”
 
Dubois somewhat personified Wellsville’s resilience and ability to bounce back. Of the five Eagles that fell in the semifinals, her 8-4 loss to Hoisington’s Trinity Graves in the 125-pound semifinals was arguably the most devastating, for both herself and the team.
 
A state placer at 125 pounds each of her first three seasons, Dubois went from back-to-back sixth-place finishes her freshman and sophomore year to reaching the state finals a year ago as a junior. Though she lost in the finals to Clay Center’s Gabi Koppes – Kansas’ first-ever four-time undefeated girls state champion – Dubois made the leap she was looking for and came into the 2025-26 as the one to beat.
 
Dubois spent the entire season ranked No. 1 and went into state with a 43-1 record. Her only loss of the regular season came to Washburn Rural’s Lacey Middleton, an 8-7 decision in the semifinals of the LadyCat Classic at Basehor-Linwood in late December.
 
After dominating her first two foes at state with pins in 35 and 42 seconds, Dubois ran into immediate trouble in the semifinals against Graves. The Cardinal sophomore needed just 16 seconds to get a takedown and after Dubois got a quick reversal, Graves got a reversal of her own to lead 5-2 after the first period.
 
Following a neutral start to the second period, Graves again got a quick takedown for an 8-2 lead. Dubois was able to reverse once again, but needing to get off bottom in the third period, she couldn’t as Graves rode her for the entire period for the 8-4 upset.
 
Seeing her title hopes dashed was a tough pill to swallow.
 
“It was really hard,” she said. “It took a lot of tears. A lot of us are seniors and we just said, ‘This is our last year, get it done.’”
 

 
Two weight classes earlier, junior teammate Jazz Kirk had suffered almost an equally stunning upset loss. Going in to state ranked No. 2 at 115 pounds with a 33-6 record, Kirk was pinned just 23 seconds into her semifinal match by Chapman’s Cambree Obermeyer.
 
Of Wellsville’s other three semifinal losses – Brinlee Hartman at 120, Tommi Shuey at 140 and Tatum Gardner at 145 – only Gardner’s could be deemed a upset with Gardner ranked No. 3 before getting pinned in her semifinal by Paola’s Shaelynn Smail.
 
But in reaching the semifinals, Hartman upset No. 3 Bracey Golden of Augusta with a pin and Shuey knocked off No. 6 Abby Fager of Eudora in a 4-2 victory. Both were unranked going into the tournament.
 
While that quarterfinal round positioned the Eagles well, their performance in the consolation semifinals was huge. Kirk, Hartman, Shuey and Dubois not only helped the Eagles go 4-1 in the round, but each won their matches via pin to secure bonus points that proved crucial. Hartman also picked up a pin victory in her third-place match and Gardner, bounced back from her semifinal loss to get a pin win in her fifth-place match.
 
“I wouldn’t say it was easy just because, it’s state,” Hartman said of Wellsville’s collective bounce-back. “It just came down to our coaches and each other sticking together.”
 

 
“How we came back today just shows the depth of our team,” Patton said. “We’ve been getting it done every tournament. We won every tournament except the LadyCat (at Basehor). We just did it week in and week out. We knew what we had and we just had to keep our nose to the ground and keep going.
 
“They had to get stuff done and we knew we had to get bonus points. And to get in for third and fourth we had four pins and that makes up for our semis. We come back from (sixth) to the top. Without those, we don’t win it.”
 
Dubois and Hartman each placed third with Dubois taking a 4-0 win over Ulysses’ Jeymi Rosales in her third-place match and Hartman getting a pin of Scott City’s Amya Parker in hers. Kirk and Shuey finished fourth and Gardner fifth. Senior Kynlie Stevenson nearly gave the Eagles a sixth placer, but fell in the blood round at 130 pounds.
 

 
Though Wellsville will graduate five of its eight state qualifiers – Dubois, Shuey, Stevenson, Morgan Mietchen and Natalie Peel – the foundation has been laid for future Eagles to strive for.
 

 
“It’s massive,” Patton said. “We’re one of the smallest schools in this tournament. To say this happens very often, it’s a lie. It’s usually the bigger schools that are going to win these tournaments because they’ve got more to choose from. I couldn’t be prouder of these girls and everybody’s been behind us and hopefully we’re showing the younger girls coming up what can happen.”
 

 
Colby finished with 99 points to place second, led by Morgan Hills who successfully defended her state title from a year ago at 135 pounds. The Eagles also had four other placers, including a third from Dallis Stieben at 155 pounds.
 
Abilene got back-to-back undefeated state titles from Josie and Jade Wilson at 100 and 105 – each sophomore winning their second straight state title – and finished third with 94 points. The Cowgirls had four placers overall.