The screams of encouragement erupting from the exhilarated coaches on the sidelines are drowned out by the moment of absolute zen occupying senior Kailey Benson as she braces herself before her opponent, who is currently attempting to tackle her deep into the mat beneath them. To Benson’s surprise, she is flipped onto her back, a strategic move made by the unknown foe. In spite of the unexpected, Benson is able to maintain her clarity and once again takes the upper hand, regaining her stance and scoring a point in return.
Only two periods into the match’s three period duration, the blow of the referee’s whistle echoes throughout the gymnasium for all its inhabitants to hear. The match has ended early — the majority point score has declared the winner. Benson rises from the mat, her attention turning from the defeated look on her opponent’s face to the scoreboard with the final verdict. Benson shakes her opponent’s hand and is then met with the referee raising her arm toward the ceiling. For the second year in a row, Benson is the Missouri state champion for girls wrestling.
On March 1, 2025, the girls wrestling team placed second overall in Class 2 for the state of Missouri. Finishing off a triumphant, undefeated season, the team continues to break school records. A state-qualifier of the girls wrestling team, senior Dana Thee-Sanchez, remarked on her improvements over the years.
“I went to state my first year and I barely won my first match. My second match, I got taken down immediately. The following match I got injured and lost, so I didn’t place,” Thee-Sanchez said. “This year, I did a whole lot better on all of my matches. Even in my final match, I didn’t lose by much, I just made a mistake.”
Placing second in state for the 145-pound weight class, Thee-Sanchez had to make multiple strenuous changes in her training in order for her win.
“I had weighed 157 pounds and wanted to go down a weight class, around the 145-pound mark. Cutting gives you an advantage, especially if you’re already bigger. You’ll be facing people who originally weighed less than you, so the weight makes a big difference,” Thee-Sanchez said.
Along with Thee-Sanchez, senior Nevaeh Smith had to cut a few pounds as well to give herself the advantage that helped her win fourth in state for the 135-pound weight class.
“I decided to make a big weight cut to go to 135 while I was weighing 146 on a Sunday. My weigh-in was that upcoming Wednesday, so I was in the gym all day and all night on top of practice,” Smith said.
Smith’s process to placing this year required a great amount of physical training and preparation — a huge commitment to achieving her goals.
“[Training] this year was long and rough. I had to spend the whole year, not just the season, wrestling and going to tournaments outside of the school’s team. I had to continue to grow and do the right things so I can get where I wanted to be,” Smith said.
Though her placement in state was not up to par with her expectations, Smith is still grateful for the experience, realizing that high school is not the one all-encompassing future for her sport.
“State, for me, is not the end. When I get out of high school, there’s going to be so many more opportunities in college, and I’m just excited to see what’s next,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, I was really blessed that I got the opportunity to go and compete because there’s a lot of people who don’t get that.”
The girls wrestling team had seven qualifiers and four placings in state; on top of that, the team left the tournament with an undefeated record and a state champion for the second year in a row. Both Thee-Sanchez and Smith were among the strongest members of their team that allowed for their school to continue breaking records in the wrestling category. As the team’s back-to-back state champion, Benson, like Smith and Thee-Sanchez, had spent the majority of her high school career training, taking advantage of any opportunities that came her way.
“I did jiu jitsu for eight years and since high school doesn’t have that as a sport, I decided to do wrestling instead since the two sports were similar,” Benson said. “I really like the mental strength [wrestling] gives you.”
For state, Benson competed in the 130-pound weight class. Benson hasn’t lost a single match since her sophomore year — a truly remarkable characteristic of her athletic ability. Despite her record, Benson did recall feeling uncertain about her final opponent.
“I had wrestled a lot of the people that I was going to see at state, but for my finals match, I hadn’t wrestled [that] opponent yet. I had so much confidence from succeeding throughout the year, but I still went into the match with this mindset of ‘I need to make sure everything is perfect and that I’m 100% focused,’” Benson said. “She had a different style than I had ever seen. I would get in on the shot, and she would flip me over, but I still ended up scoring.”
Benson’s focus paid off well, given she not only beat her unfamiliar opponent by a technical fall, but she had also won the state championship again, continuing her legacy as one of the highest-achieving female athletes in the wrestling category for her school. Even with all of her wins, Benson’s humble attitude prevails in the way she continues to credit her teammates as being her greatest supporters, whom she believes to be just as successful and hard-working as her.
“Being around a group of people who all want to succeed, and who all encounter the same hardships really helps you,” Benson said. “It just helps you to know that you have people around you that you can love and trust.”
This story was originally published on FHC Today on April 1, 2025.