On Saturday afternoon, members of the McCracken County and Caldwell County girls wrestling teams headed to Lexington, where they competed in the KHSAA State Wrestling Championships. Of the four athletes to compete between the schools, each would finish out their day on the podium.
Representing McCracken County was a pair of sophomores in Eelynn Hayden and Jillian Conn, who finished fifth and eighth in their respective weight classes.
Hayden would recover from an early loss on her way to her fifth place finish at 120 pounds, winning three of her final four matches by fall after taking a loss in the championship quarterfinal. In her final bout of the day, Hayden would take under three minutes to pick up the fall, already leading 11-0 on points.
“I had my setbacks, I lost my second match, but I tried to channel that into the rest of my matches. In my last match, I knew I had to give it everything, so I used every last bit of strength and energy I had,” Hayden said. “I’m very proud of what I did today...It was a little deflating going from third to fifth this year, but I’ll use that as fire this offseason, because I want to be on top of that podium next year.”
Conn would also bounce back from an early defeat, winning back-to-back bouts by fall to eventually earn her way into a podium finish.
“It was hard to lose my first match, but I’m proud of being able to win two matches in a row, because I didn’t know if I was even going to place at all,” said Conn. “I was the last seed in the bracket, so I beat a lot of girls that I didn’t expect to that ended up placing, too…We just left it all out on the mat.”