SALINA – When it comes to the pioneering programs for escalating girls wrestling in Kansas, Baldwin ranks right up there with the likes of Washburn Rural and McPherson, to name a couple.
 
So any time a Bulldog can make history for the program, it’s something special.
 
And Finnley Kellerman couldn’t be happier to etch her place in Baldwin wrestling history.
 
“It’s huge and it just means the world to me,” Kellerman said after capturing the Class 4A 235-pound state champion in Salina, in the process becoming the first girls’ state champion for the proud program. “Especially to be able to, in a way, kind of finish what the girls before me started. I have so much respect and look up to all of them so much because they really paved the way for me to go and accomplish what I did.”

Kellerman had plenty of company in the history-making department at the Class 4A state meet this year. The Bulldog senior was one of five girls who became the first state champion for their respective programs.
 
Rock Creek’s Megan Ryan, Wamego’s Leolyn Karnowski, Iola’s Addilyn Wacker and Atchison’s Oktavija Burnett all claimed the first state titles in their program’s history. In Burnett’s case, she became Atchison’s first-ever state champion, boy or girl.
 
“It really means a lot because I’m setting history for myself and my school,” Burnett said. “It think I’m making it possible for other wrestlers want to come out and wrestle.”
 

 
After not having any state placers in the first year girls had a KSHSAA-sanctioned state meet in 2020, Baldwin captured the Class 4-1A team championship the following season in 2021, getting a trio of individual placers with Audrey Darnell and Madi Hargett leading the way with third-place individual finishes.
 
Two years later at the 2023 state meet, Darnell became the first Bulldog girls to reach the championship finals, taking second at 140 pounds. That was Kellerman’s freshman season, but despite her family’s strong wrestling background, she didn’t compete for the program that year.
 
“Growing up I was always a softball player and I did that year-round,” Kellerman said. “My freshman year I was thinking about (wrestling) but I just didn’t end up going out. But my sophomore year, Kit (Harris, Baldwin’s former head coach who now is the coach at Baker University) convinced me to go out and try it. Obviously, my dad did it and my brother does it, but (Kit) was the final person to just push me to take that final step of going out for it.”
 
Kellerman ended up falling in love with wrestling, so much so that she wound up stepping away from softball so she could devote all of her time to wrestling.
 
“I felt so much joy in wrestling and the team dynamic was different,” she said. “I felt so confident and accomplished in a way that with softball I never really felt that way. So finding something that just meant so much to me made it easier.”
 
It’s a sport that’s meant a lot to the Kellerman family. Finnley’s father, Josh, grew up in Norton – one of the state’s hotbed wrestling communities – and in 1997 he was one of four wrestlers to claim an individual state title for the Bluejays, taking the 215-pound crown.
 
 As much as he encouraged Finnley to follow his path in the sport, she said he never pushed her into it.
 
“I think my freshman year, he would have liked me to wrestle, but he wanted it to be my choice,” Finnley said. “He didn’t really push me too hard. But once I decided to do it, I was all in and he could tell that and he even lost weight so he could get down to around 235 to be a better partner for me. He’ll work with me and practice with me and if I can find a good partner to challenge me, he’s the first one in to step on the mat with me and help me get reps and practice in.”
 
Kellerman’s first year was met with mixed success. Though Kellerman didn’t finish the season with a winning record, going 18-19, she wound up a state placer, taking sixth at 235 pounds. Last year, Kellerman improved to a 30-11 record and moved up two spots on the podium, taking fourth.
 
In taking her historic title this year, Kellerman finished with a 34-3 overall record and in the process settled what had become a state rivalry with fellow senior Elizabeth Dick of Nickerson. The two have met at the state tournament each of Kellerman’s three seasons.
 
In their first meeting in 2024 in the consolation bracket, Kellerman got a 15-second pin of Dick. When they met again in the third-place match at state last year, Dick returned the favor with a first-period pin.
 

 
The two were ranked No. 1 and 2 in 4A for virtually the entire season and each pinned their way to the title match, Kellerman getting a 38-second pin of Smoky Valley’s Madison Zeller in her semifinal match and Dick pinning Girard’s Chloe Pope in 1:06 in her semifinal.
 
Figuring she’d meet Dick in the finals, Kellerman said she went back and re-watched her match from a year ago with Dick.
 
“It was just seeing how she moved and flowed and just watching her,” Kellerman said. “And knowing that all the work I’ve put in over the summer, going to Fargo and Nationals and all these events, knowing I was a much better wrestler than I was before. I knew it would help me get the edge on her and that gave me confidence going into my finals match.”
 
It showed as Kellerman came out and took Dick right to her back less than 20 seconds into their title match. But nearly as quickly, Dick fought off the pin and reversed Kellerman. Dick then got another reversal to start the second period and rode Kellerman out the rest of the period.
 
Kellerman opted for a neutral start for the third period and this time when she took Dick down, she finished her off, getting the pin just 15 seconds into the period for the title.
 
“It was frustrating to know I almost had the fall there in the first period, but I just had to stay focused,” Kellerman said. “I had to focus on continuing to score and finish my moves.”
 

 
Unlike Kellerman, Burnett joined Atchison’s wrestling program as a freshman, her first year with the sport. She had immediate success, going 21-7 that year, and made some noise at state, upsetting regional champion Cheyenne Wagoner of Douglass in the 145-pound first round before dropping her next two matches.
 
Instead of building on that success last year, she took her sophomore season off.
 
“I didn’t have the motivation to wrestle,” Burnett said. “I have knee problems, a tear in my patellar tendon and it really made it hard to wrestle. So I took a little break.”
 
Originally, Burnett planned to continue that break again this season. But at the behest of numerous people, she relented and rejoined the program.
 
“Everybody kept telling me I should come back and do it, try it for a little bit,” Burnett said. “I started a week or two late and my coaches were telling me they weren’t going to force me to do anything I didn’t want to do, But I should try it and see if I wanted to do it again. I came in and realized I had been missing wrestling.”
 
The patellar tear in Burnett’s left knee has been with her since her freshman wrestling season, but hasn’t hampered her. She still competed in volleyball as a sophomore and again this year and said the injury has improved over the years.
 
With the late start to her wrestling season this year, Burnett flew a bit under the radar, going unranked throughout the season despite losing just twice, both losses coming at Atchison’s home George Worley Invitational where she was pinned by both Rossvlle’s Madelyn Wonnell and Osage City’s Kaylynn Nicholson.
 
At her Class 4A regional, however, she served notice that she would be a contender for the title when she pinned season-long No. 1 Shaelynn Smail of Paola in the semifinals.
 
Even with Atchison’s wrestling room only having five girls in its program, Burnett credited her teammates for her successful season. She works out with every one of them, whether they’re a heavyweight or at the lighter weights.
 
“I think it’s the push I get from my teammates, my partners,” she said. “I feel like they push me more than they push themselves sometimes and they make it hard for me at practice. And that makes me go wrestle hard at the tournaments.”
 

 
Burnett pinned her way into the state finals where she had a rematch with Smail, who also pinned her way to the finals. At that point, Burnett already was mostly satisfied with her state tournament.
 
“I knew I wanted to place and I was OK with not coming out first,” she said. “Once I realized I was either going to take first or second it made it better. I was going to be OK with taking second and that was exciting.”
 
Once the match began, however, Burnett was locked in on getting the title. She came out the aggressor and took Smail to her back for a six-point move less than 30 seconds in to the match. She couldn’t get the pin, as Smail fought it off and quickly escaped, but given a second chance to pin Smail, she didn’t let it pass, sticking the Panther with seven seconds left in the second period for the title.
 
“I knew she was coming out to be me, but I was pretty confident,” Burnett said.
 
Safe to say, the motivation to return next year as a senior to defend that title is there for Burnett.
 
“Same time, same result hopefully,” she said.
 

 
Of all the first-time state champions for their program, none were more impressive than Karnowski. In fact, of all the state champions crowned in Salina, none put together a season that was as impressive as what the Wamego freshman accomplished this year.
 
Very few in state history have. And here’s the crazy thing, it’s just what she expected.
 
“This is pretty much what I thought,” she said. “Just get it done and I wanted to make as few mistakes as possible.”
 
Though Karnowski claims she made a few here and there, the results she turned in this season suggest otherwise. Her final 39-0 record is impressive enough, especially coming at a higher weight class typically dominated by upperclassmen.
 
But the way she dominated any and all challengers made that mark even more impressive.
 
Of her 39 wins, 37 came via pin. Her other two victories came via technical falls.
 
And if that doesn’t open your eyes, this should. All 39 wins ended in the first period as Karnowski never had a match reach the second period.
 
“That whole making it, not making it out of the first period I thought was crazy,” said Wamego coach Morgan Mayginnes, who was a four-time state champion in her high school career. “We didn’t even realize that until we were halfway through the season and we were like, ‘Wait, you haven’t made it out of the first period.’ We started to go back and look and the cool thing about it she started to realize it. We’d say, ‘You’ve got 30 seconds left’ and she’d be like ‘Oh I don’t want to make it out.’ She’d end up sticking them in the next few seconds and it was cool to watch.”
 

 
Karnowski agreed that it kind of became a badge of honor.
 
“It wasn’t really a goal, but once it started going that way I figured I might as well stick with it and keep it going,” she said.
 
North Central Kansas League rival Montana Kayl of Chapman came closest at the state meet to ending that remarkable streak with Karnowski not getting the pin in their quarterfinal match until 9 seconds were left in the first period. Karnowski had needed just 54 seconds to pin her first-round foe and then only 36 seconds to pin Hoisington’s Alexis White in the semifinals.
 
Prairie View’s Shawna Case potentially seemed like a tougher test in the finals, coming off a runner-up finish at state a year ago. But Karnowski capped her freshman season in as impressive of fashion as possible, needing just 20 seconds to stick Case.
 
“It just tells me I can do more,” said Karnowski, who admitted her goal is to not only become a four-time state champion but a four-time undefeated state champion, something only Clay Center’s Gabi Koppes has accomplished in girls history and Salina South’s Bo Maynes and Blue Valley Northwest’s Zach Roberson have accomplished in boys’ state history.
 
And believe it or not, she feels there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
 
“It’s focusing on cleaning some things up and getting more technical and not just relying on brute strength,” she said.
 
“She’s a very humble wrestler and that’s one of the great things about Leo,” Mayginnes said. “She’s always willing to work harder and be better than anybody in the room, but she’s also willing to help those people get there. And she’s always adapting and making it better with her wrestling.”
 

 
The goal to make history at Rock Creek has driven Ryan ever since she stepped foot into the Mustangs’ wrestling room with her youth team.
 
“We have these banners on the wall that we look at every day in practice,” Ryan said. “And you’re just like, ‘Can my name get up there? How high can I get?’ It’s just something I’ve been looking forward to since I was eight years old wrestling in that room.”
 
While ecstatic to add her name to the banner in becoming Rock Creek’s first girls state champion – and just the second overall for the school with Brett Swoyer’s title in 2007 the lone boys’ championship – Ryan admittedly had somewhat mixed emotions. As a freshman a year ago wrestling at 135 pounds, her practice partner was senior 140-pounder Brooklyn Burenheide.
 
The daughter of Mustang coach Brad Burenheide, Brooklyn had battled back from an injury-plagued start to her career to reach the state championship in both 2024 and 2025. But each of those title bids fell short as Burenheide finished as a two-time runner-up.
 
And Ryan felt her former teammate was perhaps more deserving of becoming the Mustangs’ first girls champion.
 
“I’ve always looked up to Brooklyn and she just seemed so unreachable,” Ryan said. “And honestly, I wish she had it because I think that would have been more special for her and to Coach Brad, to see that happen for her. But it is really special that I was the first one to do it and I’m really looking forward to seeing who the next will be to do it.”
 
Motivated to finish what Burenheide started, Ryan had a strong freshman season to build off of. Last year at 135 pounds, she posted a 29-5 record and placed fifth at the state tournament.
 
Moving up to 140 pounds this year and entering the season with high expectations, things got off to a somewhat auspicious start. In her first tournament of the season, she lost to North Central Kansas League rival Gabi Lange of Concordia, getting pinned after Lange had dominated the match completely.
 
“It just kind of put everything in reality,” she said. “But I remember my coach telling me, ‘You had a loss last year in your first tournament and still had a heck of a year, so just go do it.’ So that’s what I strived to do, correcting my mistakes early on and that’s what made being a champion a reality.”
 

 
Ryan met Lange again at a league dual and then again in the semifinals of the regionals with Ryan turning the tables, pinning Lange in their dual meeting with the match tied 7-7 and winning by a 12-3 major decision in the regional semifinals.
 
Both worked their way to a fourth meeting for the state title and early on it appeared Lange would even their season series at 2-2. The Panther took Ryan down twice in the first period and led 6-2. But midway through the second period, the action flipped and Ryan took control with a takedown and four-point near fall to close the period with eight straight points for an 11-6 lead.
 
Starting the third period on top, Ryan worked Lange to her back and 17 seconds into the period got the pin for the state title, prompting an emotional celebration.
 
“I was like, ‘Oh crap,’ for a second,” Ryan said of the early deficit. “But I knew I could come back from it, I’d come back from worse before. Everything just settled and the second period hit and we were rolling. It just hit really hard and it was amazing. I really don’t know how to describe it.”
 
Ryan finished the season with a 36-4 record and now has her name on the banners that future Mustangs will be striving to join.
 
“It’s so cool and I kind of see it all the time with my little sister,” Ryan said of 10-year-old Stella Ryan, who has taken up wrestling as well. “She mimics everything I do. She’s picking up some of my habits. I think it’s really cool that I can influence little girls and help them be better. We’ll be in the same room once she gets to middle school, so I can’t wait to have her there with me.”
 

 
Iola’s Wacker already had history in hand even before winning her 130-pound state title that kicked off the Class 4A championship round. Her semifinal win on Friday had made her the first Iola girl to ever reach the state championships.
 
She was joined later in the semifinal round by teammate Zoie Hesse, who reached the 190 finals, and the two had hoped to continue their simultaneous quest together in the finals and do it again. But while Wacker was able to complete the journey, Hesse fell short, getting pinned by two-time state champion Abby Breen of Winfield in her title match.
 
While that prevented a bigger celebration, it hardly diminished Wacker’s accomplishment.
 
“It honestly feels great and I definitely have to thank everyone on my team and my coaches for pushing me to be my best,” Wacker said. “I couldn’t have gotten it done without them.”
 
Wacker followed her brothers and father into the sport when she was eight. Though she said she got off to a rough start in those early years, she began progressing and by the time she hit high school a year ago, she was already a force.
 
She finished her freshman season with a 25-9 mark at 130 pounds and placed third at state, dropping an 11-2 major decision to Halstead’s Kahlyn Davis in the semifinals.
 
“It just made me want it more this year,” Wacker said of her semifinal loss. “So I just pushed a lot harder to meet my goal.”
 

 
Wacker had a couple close calls on her way to the finals this year, taking just a 3-2 win over Nickerson’s Brooklyn Schneider in her opening match and then pulling out a 5-2 double-overtime win over Smoky Valley’s Brylie Ricketts in the semifinals.
 
In the finals, Wacker met up with Wellington’s Maddie Fullerton, whom she had met in the first tournament of the season. Wacker won by a pin in a match that was close up to that point.
 
In the rematch, she got out to a 5-0 lead following a scoreless first period, reversing Fullerton early in the second period and getting a quick three-point near fall. That was all the points Wacker needed and she finished with a 5-3 decision.
 
“It definitely made me feel better that I had some points,” she said. “I had some room for the rest of the match and I knew it would be a tough match.”
 
Wacker joins Logan Brown as Iola’s only state champions with Brown winning the Class 4A boys’ 285-pound title in 2020.
 
“I help the kids club and I really hope those girls look up to me and see that it can be them one day,” she said.
 

 
BACK WHERE SHE STARTED, FRONTENAC’S HOLMES ONE TITLE AWAY FROM BECOMING A FOUR-TIMER
 
After capturing the Class 4A 105-pound state title with a 35-4 record for Frontenac as a freshman, Harper Holmes wanted nothing more than to run it back last year as a sophomore.
 
Holmes did indeed get another state title in 2025, but not for the Raiders. Instead, it came as a member of Pittsburg’s wrestling team.
 
Experiencing academic struggles her freshman year at Frontenac, the Holmes family decided the best learning environment for Harper would be through online schooling. And being a resident of Pittsburg who could attend Frontenac via their open admissions policy, if she wanted to wrestle as a sophomore, it had to be for the district in which she lived.
 
So Holmes competed for Pittsburg and captured the Class 5A 110-pound title, going 35-1 on the season.
 
“It was tough (to not be at Frontenac), but the coach and team at Pittsburg was amazing and I love LC (Davis, Pittsburg’s coach),” Holmes said. “I think (winning state) was definitely harder my freshman year, maybe because I was a freshman and last year I was a little more used to it.”
 
It was a one-and-done experience for Holmes. Putting together an education plan where she attended school for a half day and online schooled for the other half, Holmes was able to return to Frontenac this year And once again, she returned to the top of the podium.
 
Moving up another weight class to 110 this season, Holmes posted a 40-5 record and made it three-for-three with state titles in her career, capping the season with a 4-1 win over Scott City’s Haylie McDaniel in the finals. Holmes had pinned her way to the finals and then survived a tough battle with McDaniel, who had upset two-time reigning 110 state champion Kenna Miles of Fort Scott in the semifinals.
 
“I missed my team and I was really close with the Frontenac girls so I was happy to be back with them,” Holmes said. “And Andy (Albright, Frontenac’s coach) has always been by my side to it was great to be back with him and wrestle with them.”
 
The road back to her third state championship didn’t come without some adversity. In the second tournament of the season, Holmes broke her nose in her semifinal match against Gardner Edgerton freshman Brielynn Jackson.
 
She finished the match, but lost by a technical fall to Jackson, who wound up capturing the Class 6A state title this year. Three of the five losses Holmes suffered this year came to Jackson, two of those coming at the KC Stampede where she suffered three of her five losses overall.
 
While she knew the broken nose wouldn’t end her season, she was a bit unsure how well she would wrestle wearing a mask to protect her nose the rest of the way.
 
“I was going to wrestle regardless,” Holmes said. “The mask is kind of tough. My peripherals are pretty much gone so I really have to angle my face a certain way. In some ways, it can be an advantage on cross faces and things like that. It was tough to wrestle with but I got used to it.”
 
The broken nose wasn’t the only physical setback Holmes has had to overcome to keep her string of state titles going. During the offseason, she had a heart ablation in August to treat supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), a condition causing a rapid heartbeat she was diagnosed with when she was in fifth grade, as well as torn labrums in each of her shoulders suffered earlier in her career.
 
In dealing with those ailments, Holmes said she didn’t put in the same kind of work she usually does in the summer and felt it showed with four of her five losses coming in the first two weeks of the season.
 
“I was kind of resting up and didn’t really think twice, PT all the time,” she said. “It showed at the beginning of the season and people were asking what was going on. But I got it together after the Stampede.”
 

 
Her only loss the rest of the way came to Wamego’s Nevaeh Beatty at the Gerald Sadowski Invitational when the Red Raider caught her while she was leading 11-0 and got the upset pin. Holmes bounced back immediately, beating Miles in a dual and again at regionals with major decisions and in between also pinning eventual Class 3-1A champion Reagan Neal of Bluestem.
 
Finishing the season on a roll, Holmes has now put herself one title away from joining the state’s four-time champion club, which currently only has five members since the start of the KSHSAA-sanctioned state tournament in 2020.
 
“It feels awesome and I’m going to work my butt off because I don’t want to risk getting humbled in the finals. My goal is to be a four-time and I’m going to work for it to succeed at that.
 
“But it puts a lot of pressure on me now because I’m a junior and a three-timer. Everyone’s already asking, ‘Are you going to get four?’ And that’s a lot of pressure and it’s a deal where I’ve been in the state finals the past three years, but I hate pressure. It’s something that’s ugh about it, but I deal with it.”
 
Perhaps the biggest question will be at what weight will that fourth title potentially come. Not only is there the possibility if Holmes stays at 110 that one of Abilene’s Wilson twins, Jade or Josie, could move up to that class last year with both already two-time state champions as sophomores, each going undefeated this season.
 
And there’s also competition within her own household with younger sister, Halle, an eighth-grader ready to jump into the mix next year as a freshman.
 
“She’s my weight as well and we’re going to have to see who goes where,” Holmes said. “She beat two high school state champs in seventh grade, so she’s good. We’ll figure it out, but one of us will go 115, I’m guessing.
 
“She’s my best friend so it’s going to be amazing wrestling with her next year. She’s always been my partner and the past year or two outside of practice we get work in so she’s that built in wrestling buddy. She’s been my favorite partner and pushes me the hardest.”
 

 
AFTER FLASH OF MORTALITY, CHANUTE’S DILLOW COMPLETES DOMINANT END TO CAREER
 
On her way to a rather historic end to her high school wrestling career, Kiley Dillow suddenly got an unexpected reality check.
 
It only lasted a second or two, but in Dillow’s mind, it was forever.
 
Less than 30 seconds into her Class 4A 170-pound title match with Bishop Miege’s Molly Benes, Dillow got caught off balance and Benes seized the moment, not only taking the Blue Comet standout down, but to her back.
 
“I’m going in on the shot that I take every single day and she throws me to my back,” Dillow said of Benes’ stunning move that sent a ripple of shock through the Tony’s Pizza Events Center as well as to Dillow’s system. “Of course when I’m in that position, I’m thinking 45 seconds have gone by and stuff’s hit the fan. There was a point where I blacked out and I didn’t know where I was but somehow I got out.”
 
The moment of danger was so quick that Benes didn’t even register near-fall points. But the move registered in Dillow’s mind once she gathered herself. And that was bad news for the upset-minded Benes.
 
“I was able to regroup and after I got back on my feet I was like, ‘OK, it’s 0-0. Being down by two doesn’t mean anything,’” Dillow said. “I competed in a couple tournament this past year where I was down and came back to win the match and that helped a lot. I’d been down worse and I knew I could do this.
 
“After she took me down, I was like, ‘I’m going to win this and I’m going to put a period on this win.’”
 
More like an exclamation point. After finishing the first period with a seven-point move to take an 8-3 lead, Dillow absolutely dominated Benes the rest of the way. She repeatedly took Benes down and let her go in the second period to roll to a 21-6 technical fall win.
 
The victory capped a 38-0 season and marked her third straight undefeated state title at 170 pound after going 49-0 as a sophomore and 43-0 as a junior. Dillow, who finished with a 163-6 career record, won the last 133 matches of her high school career.
 

Not bad for someone who fashioned herself as a basketball player before getting into wrestling her freshman year of high school.
 
“It’s been amazing, it’s been crazy,” Dillow said of her career. “Something I never would have dreamed of five years ago – ‘Oh by the way, you’re one of the most dominant girls in Kansas. What are you talking about? I don’t even wrestle.’ But I thank God every single day. He put this sport into my journey and it’s changed my character, changed my work ethic. It’s made me grow in faith and who I am as a person.”
 
Dillow will wrestle at Fort Hays State and was already looking ahead to that journey.
 
“There’s always room to improve and that’s one thing I’m looking forward to when I move up to college,” she said. “I’m so excited to have people around me that will push me and make me get better. I’m ready to lose and ready to learn.”
 
She just wasn’t ready to lose her last high school match and made sure she didn’t.
 

 
BACK-TO-BACK TIMES 2: ABILENE’S WILSON TWINS REPEAT TITLES AS SOPHOMORES
 
After capturing Class 4A state titles together as freshmen a year ago, Abilene’s Josie and Jade Wilson didn’t exactly have a whole lot of room to improve on their outstanding debut seasons.
 
After all, Josie finished the year with a 39-0 record in winning the 100-pound title while Jade fashioned a 36-2 mark in taking the title at 105.
 
Yet somehow, the twin sisters managed to be even better as sophomores. In defending their titles from a year ago at the same weight, the sisters both finished with undefeated marks.
 
Josie was undefeated for the second straight season, this year going 34-0. Jade, meanwhile, got her first undefeated season in going 41-0.
 
Not that finishing undefeated was ever really the goal.
 
“I didn’t really think about it that much because records don’t really mean anything,” Josie said. “Anybody can beat anybody so I just wasn’t really focused on my record. I was just focused on scoring the next point and giving my best effort. If I did that, there’s nothing more I could have done.”
 

 
Jade had a somewhat similar outlook.
 
“It was kind of just in the back of my mind,” she said. “I knew I wanted to try to be undefeated, but at the same time, like Josie said, records don’t mean anything. I was just trying to stay focused and take it one match at a time and if I got the win, great. If I don’t, then I’ll learn from my loss and keep pushing through.”
 
The winning took care of itself as the duo navigated the season in dominating fashion with Jade winning all but two of her matches via pin (34), forfeit (3) or technical fall (2) and Josie winning all but one match with a pin (31) or forfeit (2).
 
Each did have some serious threats to their bids for perfection. At the season-opening Doug Kretzer Invitational at McPherson, Josie went to overtime in the finals against Maize South’s Krislynn Martinez before pulling out a 7-4 decision against the Maverick, who won her second straight Class 5A state title this year.
 
Jade, meanwhile, ran into Newton’s Brooklyn Treaster in the finals and got a 9-7 decision over the 2025 Class 5A champion at 110. The two met again the following week in the finals of the Goodwill Invitational at Douglass and this time, Wilson won by a 4-2 margin.
 
Neither had matches at state reach the third period with Josie not having one make it to the second period. She had a 21-second pin to start her tournament and her longest match came in the finals against Santa Fe Trail freshman standout Kennedy Portlock with Wilson not getting the pin in her title match until 18 seconds were left in the first period.
 
“I know she’s pretty good and she’s been on a couple of my dual teams,” Josie said of Portlock. “I was looking forward to having a good match with her.”
 

 
In Jade’s title match, she faced Nemaha Central’s Renae Keim, whom Josie had beaten in the state finals a year ago. Keim fought off a first-period pin, but couldn’t do it again in the second period as Wilson got the fall just 32 seconds into the period.
 
Now two-for-two with state titles in their careers, the Wilson twins are halfway to becoming four-time champions with Josie having the potential to become just the second girl in state history to go undefeated in their career. They got to witness that bit of history a year ago when Clay Center’s Gabi Koppes finished off her undefeated career.
 
This year, they were able to witness Paola’s Brock Johnson and Beloit’s Brogan Monty join the boys’ four-timers club.
 
“I’ve always known it’s a possibility, a hope, and it’s always been one of my goals to be a four-timer,” Josie said. “To go undefeated would also be cool, but if I took a loss early on (in a season) I can learn so much more from what I need to work on.”
 

 
Jade agreed.
 
“It’s been a goal, but I really didn’t think much about it until state time,” Jade said. “You can’t be a four-timer without your first title. You can’t be a four-timer without your second title. So just taking it one match at a time, one year at a time is what I’m doing.”
 

 
TWICE AS NICE: WINFIELD’S BRENN, COLBY’S HILLS AND CHAPMAN’S CALOVICH CLAIM SECOND TITLES
 
Coming off the first state championship of her career, Winfield’s Abby Brenn said she felt the pressure coming into her senior season with expectations that she would repeat as the Class 4A 190-pound champion, particularly after posting a dominating 32-1 mark a year ago.
 
Colby’s Morgan Hills knew the feeling as well. She claimed her first state title a year ago, too, winning the 135-pound crown with a 29-2 record.
 
But with that kind of pressure, one can either buckle or buck up. And there was no question which path both chose.
 
“I just told myself there’s a side to being the best, you’re going to have a target on your back,” Hills said. “So I knew I had to prove to everyone there’s a reason why there’s a target on my back.”
 

 
Hills took everyone’s best shot and only faltered twice during the season. Same for Brenn, who also suffered only two defeats.
 
None of those losses came at state and both finished off their second straight state championships in impressive fashions. Hill capped a 45-2 season with a first-period pin of Nemaha Central’s Autumn Feldkamp in their 135-pound final, while Brenn finished off a 23-2 season with a second-period pin of Iola’s Zoie Hesse in their 190-pound title match.
 
“I’d say this year’s was tougher,” Brenn said. “Through the year I went through some injuries with my leg. And then expectations were higher, which made it tough.”
 
Indeed, Brenn’s path to her repeat title was about the only marked difference between the two 4A standouts. While Hills powered her way through her schedule, Brenn had to adjust hers after suffering an injury to her left knee at the Goodwill Invitational in Douglass in the second tournament of the season.
 
During the tournament semifinals against Campus’ Elayna Evans – who went on to finish as the undefeated Class 6A state champion -- Brenn’s left knee cap popped out of place. While it went right back into place, the ACL in that knee was slightly strained.
 
She had to default out of the tournament – her only losses of the season – and at that point the rest of her season was very much in doubt.
 
“I was terrified,” Brenn said. “I was in tears.”
 
A trip to the doctor showed the ACL was still in tact, but that she would need to take six weeks off from wrestling. Brenn missed the rest of December, but returned in five weeks, getting back, on the mat in late January. She never really got back to 100%, but continued her pursuit of a repeat title.
 
“I struggled through it the rest of the season,” she said. “But I got through it.”
 

 
Brenn changed up her wrestling style a bit to compensate for the injury, but was still her dominant self. Her toughest match at state came in the semifinals against Holton’s Marley Gilliland, whom she had also beaten in the semifinals a year ago. Instead of pinning her like she did a year ago, Brenn settled for a 16-4 major decision.
 
That set up a third meeting this season with Iola’s Zoie Hesse, whom she had pinned in their previous two meetings.
 
“I knew it would be a good match,” Brenn said. “But I could tell she definitely watched a lot of film and was ready for me.”
 
Hesse struck the first blow with a takedown a minute into the first period. In a rare come-from-behind spot, Breen responded. She got a reversal late in the period and after opting to go neutral to start the second, she took Hesse down and to her back and pinned her 46 seconds into the period.
 
“I was concerned, but it was more like, ‘Oh, welp, this isn’t good. Better get going,’” Brenn said of Hesse’s early takedown.
 
Brenn’s title also was big for her personally. Her father, Andy – her coach as well – and her brother Koby, each were state champions in their careers. That makes the Brenn family one of just two in state history with a father-son-daughter champion combination along with the Treasters with father Matt winning four titles at Beloit and having three sons – Logan (2015), Grant (2018, 2019) and Nick (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) – and daughter Brookelyn (2025) also win titles.
 
But with two titles, Abby had now one-upped her father and brother.
 
“It’s bragging rights,” she said. “It’s just a little (important) and a nice brag to have in arguments.”
 

 
Hills’ only losses this season came to Class 6A state champion Alayna Slifer of Manhattan, with whom she split, beating the Indian for the title at the Newton Tournament of Champions, and an out-of-state opponent. And with the title she joined former Eagle teammate Amanda Jaeger as two-time champions for the program.
 
With one year left, she can surpass Jaeger and said she can still get better than she was this year.
 
“There’s so much to improve on,” Hills said. “Even in my state match I was like, ‘I should have done this and I should have done that.’ I just need to get strong, more technique and see more openings.”
 
As much as she enjoyed her second straight title, Hills was even more excited about Colby’s performance as a team. With four teammates also earning state medals, Colby finished runner-up in the team standings to Wellsville, coming up just 2.5 points shy of the title.
 
It’s the highest state finish for the program and four of the five placers return next year.
 
“It’s just amazing, the satisfaction of all the hard work we’ve put in,” she said. “The coaches have helped me so much, my teammates have helped me tremendously, especially getting second as a team, we’ve improved so much. From the beginning of this season, we’ve improved so much and even the ones who didn’t place or even make it to state, I’m so proud of them.”
 

 
While Brenn and Hills were winning their second straight titles, Chapman’s Alyssa Calovich also got the second state title of her career. But hers was a bookend to a career that saw her start it with a state championship as a freshman in 2023 before experiencing setbacks each of the past two seasons.
 
As a sophomore, Calovich took an undefeated record into the state meet, but came down with an illness that eventually became a health issue right before the state meet and promptly went 0-2, unable to muster any kind of strength she needed to make a run at a second straight title.
 
Calovich got her health issues mostly under control a year ago, but was upset in the quarterfinals of 120 pounds by Frontenac’s Mya Courtney in a technical fall loss and wound up finishing fourth.
 
But this year, the Irish standout was back in top form all season. She suffered only one loss during the season, to Pratt’s Gracelyn Hembree, and finished the season on a 29-match win streak, posting a 40-1 final record.
 
The last of those victories was perhaps her wildest of the season. Calovich had pinned her way into the finals where she was expecting to see Wellsville’s Olive Dubois, last year’s state runner-up who had been ranked No. 1 all season at 125 pounds.
 
But Dubois was upset in the semifinals by Hoisington’s Trinity Graves and that threw a bit of a wrench into Calovich’s preparation.
 
“I had never been able to see her wrestle before,” she said. “I just had to try my stuff because I didn’t know what she would do.”
 

 
Calovich got the match’s first takedown a minute into the first period and built a 5-1 lead with a reversal early in the second period. But Graves tied the match with an escape and takedown. After Calovich went back on top early in the third with a two-point near fall, Graves reversed with 1:10 left to again tie the match, 7-7.
 
With time ticking away, Calovich struggled to get free, but pulled out a reversal with 30 seconds left and held on for the 9-7 victory.
 
“I genuinely thought I was going to lose,” she said. “But I knew it was the last period and with 30 seconds left I saw my coach and she was yelling, ‘You’ve got to get up. You’ve got to get up.’ I knew it was time and I got my reversal and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve just got to hold her down.’ And they blew the whistle and I was done and a champion again.”
 
With everything she’d gone through since her first title, this one had special meaning.
 
“It’s just so much more worth it,” she said. “I’ve worked so hard for two years to get back to this point and I finally got my get back.”
 

 
TONGANOXIE DUO PANKEY, WILSON GO BACK-TO-BACK
 
It was a match Autumn Wilson had been waiting a whole year for.
 
At last year’s Class 4A state tournament, Wilson seemed ready to challenge for at state title at 120 pounds. The Tonganoxie standout went into the state tourney as a regional champion and ranked No. 2 behind undefeated Leiannah Landreth of Mulvane, sporting a 32-6 record.
 
She had finished third at state a year earlier as a sophomore and appeared ready to take the next step.
 
But her journey ended nearly as quickly as it began as she was upset by Frontenac’s Mya Courtney, who pinned her in the quarterfinals. While Courtney rode the momentum to another upset of Chapman’s Alyssa Calovich in the semifinals to take on Landreth in the finals, Wilson dealt with a concussion suffered in a consolation match and finished fifth.
 
“It drove me a lot,” Wilson said. “Everybody saw me there and I could not put myself there. She caught me with a three-quarter nelson on top and I rolled over and got stacked.”
 
After finally reaching that elusive state championship match this year as a senior, Wilson only had one thing standing between her and the title at 120 pounds. Her nemesis from a year ago, Courtney.
 
“I knew I could do better and I wanted to prove it was a fluke that she beat me,” Wilson said of facing Courtney in the finals.
 

 
Wilson got her redemption and did so in emphatic style. Leading the title match 3-0, Wilson pinned Courtney in the second period to cap a 36-3 season with her first state title.
 
If her loss last year wasn’t motivation enough, Wilson got an extra dose only moments before taking the mat for her title match. She was matside for the 115-pound championship match as well, watching fellow Chieftain senior Kaylee Pankey get a title of her own.
 
Having knocked off No. 1 and undefeated Alexis Wall of Circle in the semifinals with an 11-7 win, Pankey proved the victory wasn’t a fluke as she dominated Chapman’s Cambree Obermeyer 10-2 in the title match for a major decision victory.
 
It was not only her first state title, but first state medal of any kind.
 

 
“I think watching her win was more exciting,” said Wilson, who embraced Pankey as she came off the mat, with Pankey returning that hug after Wilson got her title as well. “That got me so ready for my match.”
 
Pankey’s win saw her get out to a 7-0 lead in an unconventional way. For her at least.
 
“First period, I didn’t expect to get a cradle like I did,” Pankey said. “I’ve never done the cradle. But after that, I was confident and just believed in myself.”
 
Pankey joined her older brother, Tyler, as a state champion and finished the season with a 42-7 record.
 
“It was really exciting for both of us to win it together,” Pankey said. “I can’t explain it.”