Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
St. Joseph-Ogden's Maddie Wells (left) wrestles Urbana's Rickasia Ivy in dual meet in December. Wells and Ivy, who took second place, qualified for the IHSA Girls Individual Wrestling State Finals in Bloomington Feb. 28 - Mar. 1.
HIGHLAND - At the beginning of the season in December, when asked what she wanted to accomplish this season, St. Joseph-Ogden's Maddie Wells said, "I'm really hoping to qualify for girls' state for the first time." Mission accomplished. Wells, a junior who started wrestling three years ago, is a warrior. Yesterday, she became the first St. Joseph-Ogden female athlete to qualify for the IHSA's Girls Wrestling State Finals. Finishing third in the 140-pound division, the junior's grueling path through the bracket to punch her ticket to the state tournament in Bloomington was sealed after six matches at the Highland Sectional. "I was kind of in disbelief and I was happy for all my friends that I’ve made along the way that also qualified," Wells said after her third-place finish. "I was most excited to eat Chipotle, though." Except for her quarterfinal loss to Collinsville's Taylor Dawson, who won the sectional title in their division, Wells won four matches by fall and recorded a techfall in her consolation semifinal win over Mt. Vernon's Daniya Musgrave. Mentally and emotionally, she said her first match of sectionals was the most stressful. "My qualification match was my toughest," she admitted. "My previous two years I had been knocked out in this round so I was the most nervous." Wells won her sectional opener, pinning Salem's Alan Finney at 1:44. Her quarterfinal loss to Dawson lasted 42 seconds. She bounced back from the defeat to win her next four bouts. All the work Wells put in during the off-season paid dividends. She heads to the state tournament at Grossinger Motors Arena with an 18-6 record. "I do a lot of open gyms," she said. She also attended camps at the University of Illinois during the summer to sharpen her technical skills. "And, I did some off-season girls tournaments." Now a trailblazer for the Spartan girls' program and one of two girls on this year's squad, she hopes that her success will influence other female athletes to join the sport. "I feel privileged to be able to pave the path but I feel excited to see the girls that follow," she said. "I hope I inspired girls younger than me to not be afraid of trying new things despite their gender and being able to follow their dreams."
Maddie Wells sectional match results:
- Champ. Round 1 - Maddie Wells won by fall over Alana Finney, Salem - Fall 1:44
- Quarterfinal - Taylor Dawson, Collinsville 32-3 won by fall over Maddie Wells - Fall 0:42
- Cons. Round 2 - Maddie Wells won by fall over Kaisley Shotkoski, Mahomet-Seymour - Fall 1:15
- Cons. Round 3 - Maddie Wells won by fall over Jacee Mardirosian, Carterville - Fall 3:34
- Cons. Semi - Maddie Wells won by tech fall over Daniya Musgrave, Mt. Vernon - TF-1.5 2:18 18-0
- 3rd Place Match - Maddie Wells won by fall over Lillien Roughton, Unity Christian - Fall 3:09
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