Coming off of a memorable 2022-23 season, the girls’ wrestling team is ready to build on the success of last year. Six KHS wrestlers advanced to the Indiana High School Girls’ Wrestling State Finals. 2022 graduate Aulani Davis earned her fourth straight state title, while teammates Brielle Humphries and Fielou van Bruggen finished 4th and 7th respectively. With only two seniors on last year’s team qualifying for state, the future looks bright for this year’s squad.
Preparing for this season the team has set many goals for themselves. They want to work harder and be more prepared for matches, learn how to control themselves during matches and pay attention to their surroundings. The LadyKats have already had two tournaments to put those goals into practice. They opened their season Nov. 4 at the New Palestine Invite where junior Layla Brehm and sophomore Abbi Jackson placed 8th and senior captain Alona Smith finished 4th. Freshman Makyila Rubush earned a 3rd place finish in her first high school wrestling tournament.
They followed their first week successes with another tournament. The team wrestled at the Purdue Poly Tech Open. Rubush had another 3rd place finish while Brehm improved to finish 5th and Jackson improved to 6th.
But as the season progresses, coach Jacob Bough wants his team to remember one thing.
“It’s not about how you start,” he said. “It’s about how you finish.”
And the LadyKat wrestlers are hoping to finish their season at this year’s state finals, which will be held at Kokomo’s Memorial Gym in January.
The team wrestles Dec. 2 at Penn High School.
