Their journeys took them down different roads, but they all led back to the same place: the mat.
Three SHS wrestlers competed last month in the first-ever official IHSAA girls wrestling state tournament. In previous years, girls wrestling was considered an “emerging” sport.
Although the girls traveled different paths to the state championships, their love for wrestling is one tie that holds them closely together.

Kyla Johnson

Prior to the first round of last year’s state finals, senior Kyla Johnson was filled with anticipation as the crowd echoed from wall to wall.
But she was unaware of the misfortune that would shortly follow.
During her second match, Johnson had an unfortunate setback when she injured her ACL.
Despite injury time being called for the match, Johnson decided to finish. She went on to pin her opponent, which allowed her to advance to the final four.
However, her injury forced her to be pulled from the tournament, placing her fourth in her weight class.
She was told by a doctor that her wrestling career was likely over.
“It was really hard because I put in a lot of work,” Johnson said. “Watching it all slip away broke my heart.”

Johnson’s love for the sport began as a young child. She remembers the thrill of seeing her little brother wrestle and wanted to try it out for herself. Realizing she had a natural talent, she never gave up.
“My family is really my motivation to keep wrestling,” Johnson said. “I was always around it because of my brother, so I kind of just fell in love with it from a young age.”
Johnson transferred from Ben Davis’ district to Southport in eighth grade. From day one, she proved that she could be a successful high school wrestler.
As only a freshman, she finished her season with a record of 5-2.
While she finished her next season with a satisfactory record of 4-2, she showed rapid improvement her junior year. She won her first 12 matches of the season before her injury led to the devastating loss at the state finals.
“I was heartbroken after I got hurt last year, especially after my doctor told me I couldn’t come back to wrestling,” Johnson said. “Luckily, I had a lot of people around me to help me get back on my feet.”
She was unable to compete for most of her senior season. But when she came back in mid-December, she said she wanted to go all out one last time.
She finished the regular season with an undefeated record of 4-0, which once again allowed her to qualify to compete at state.
Going into the state finals ranked number one in her weight class, Johnson was confident she could bring home a title. Yet, she ended up falling short to her opponent in the semi-final round placing fourth for the second year in a row.
“I think she did as good as she could have done,” head coach Nick Skinner said, “especially considering that she wasn’t fully healed yet after her injury from last year.”
As Johnson closes this chapter of her life, she’s thankful for all this experience has given her.
“It hurts knowing I’m done wrestling as a Cardinal, but it’s also bittersweet because I have made some of the best memories I have wrestling for Southport,” Johnson said.

Avalyn Mosconi

For senior AvaLyn Mosconi, wrestling has always been more than just a sport. To her, it’s been a salvation.
She has found wrestling to be an escape from the challenges she has faced in life, such as mental health issues and an eating disorder.
“When everything in my life seems like it’s going wrong, I know the mat will always be there for me,” Mosconi said.
But Mosconi wasn’t looking for salvation when she first began wrestling.
While her whole family has deep roots in the wrestling community, it was her older brother who sparked her initial interest in joining.
In her younger years, she saw her brother as a leader and had hopes that one day she would be just like him.
“I wanted to keep my brother’s legacy,” Mosconi said. “I’ve always looked up to him a lot.”
Over the years, Mosconi has proven that she has what it takes to follow in her brother’s footsteps.
She has had many successful seasons throughout her career including winning multiple state titles prior to the tournament becoming an official IHSAA championship this year.

“I actually won state my freshman year, I placed second my sophomore year and I won again my junior year,” Mosconi said. “It was so hard, but I’m really proud of all my accomplishments.”
Having had so much success throughout her high school career, Mosconi expected that she would once again come back to compete for a state championship her senior year.
But this time, something was different.
“At the beginning of this year, I unfortunately started having some mental problems that eventually led to an eating disorder,” Mosconi said. “I lost a lot of weight really fast.”
She says she could feel that her body was significantly weaker and that it was hard to find motivation.
Luckily, Mosconi had her teammates and coach who stayed by her side and offered her help when she found herself to be struggling.
“I’m really thankful for my teammates and Skinner,” Mosconi said. “They were there for me the whole time. Skinner was even able to help me make meal plans to get healthy again.”
Mosconi went on to have a successful regular season finishing with an overall record of 6-1.
She was hoping to bring home another title at the state championship but ended up losing in the semifinals, placing her fourth overall in her weight class.
Even though Mosconi was disappointed by her loss, she is eternally grateful that wrestling has helped her to overcome many obstacles.
“Because of wrestling I was able to get back to normal again,” Mosconi said. “I was able to push myself to believe that I can be anything I want to be.”

Hope Senteney

In a sport that continues to grow by the day, it can be hard to stand out. For freshman Hope Senteney, standing out is the least of her problems.
As just a freshman, Senteney qualified to compete for a state title.
“I knew from the moment I met her she had the potential to be a rockstar,” head coach Nick Skinner said. “With time, I know she will be an incredible force.”
Senteney’s passion for wrestling began as an innocent past time where she wrestled around the house with her brother. This led her to officially start wrestling in fifth grade.
After competing in her very first match, she realized she already had a love for wrestling and decided that she was going to stick with it.
As just a young girl, Senteney had major dreams.
“I’ve always wanted to do big things,” Senteney said. “I’m happy with where I’m at. But there’s still so much more I want to achieve.”
While she’s had successful seasons during her career, she says her seventh grade season was one to remember as it allowed her to discover a deeper level of passion for wrestling.
“I actually won state my seventh grade year,” Senteney said. “I was really happy because that made me feel like I would definitely be able to do something with the sport in the future.”
While Senteney had great success her seventh grade year, she ran out of luck during her eighth grade season.
During a mid-season match, she took an unfortunate landing that injured her wrist. She says all she can remember was lying on the mat thinking, “Please don’t be broken.”
That would be her last match of her middle school career as she later found out that it was, in fact, fractured.
“It really broke my heart not being able to wrestle for six months,” Senteney said. “I never wanted to wrestle so much in my life.”

She got the chance to return to the mat this year.
She ended her regular season with a record of 8-6 and says she was proud of her performance considering that it was her first high school season.
Unfortunately though, the state tournament did not end in Senteney’s favor. After winning her first two matches, she was disqualified and therefore lost in the semi-final round. She went on to win her last match, however, securing her spot for third place in her weight class.
As disappointing as it was to not bring home a title, she is already focusing on the future and has high hopes for next season.
She knows she will be coming back with extra weight on her shoulders since she’ll be the team’s top returning wrestler.
“It’s going to be different being a leader on the team,” Senteney said. “I know I’ll be able to take care of the girls though. I can’t wait to see how we perform next year.”