Photo by Travis David | Sullivan's Rachel Ramirez works for a pin during the 130-pound championship match of Saturday's inaugural Lady Arrows Brawl. Ramirez went a perfect 5-0 on the day.

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BY TRAVIS DAVID

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SULLIVAN — For the past couple of seasons, Sullivan has had a small girls wrestling team. But this year things are different as the growing sport is sanctioned by the Indiana High School Athletic Association for the first time.

And although the Lady Arrows have competed in girls tournaments in the past, governed by the wrestling coaches association, a bit of history was made on Saturday. The Arrows hosted their first ever girls wrestling tournament — The Lady Arrows Fall Brawl.

A total of 95 grapplers representing 16 different schools met on the mat inside the SHS gymnasium.

Bloomington South came away victorious while Southridge and Carmel rounded out the Top 3.

The Lady Arrows, with just four healthy wrestlers competing, placed ninth while North Knox finished 14th.

Although the team finished in the bottom half of the standings, the Lady Arrows had one of the best individual performances of the tournament.

Rachel Ramirez, who has qualified for the girls state final each of the last two seasons, finished a perfect 5-0 on the day to win the 130-pound individual title.

The junior did not just capture first place, but she dominated. All five wins for Ramirez came via pin fall and all five happened in the first period.

In the championship match, the Lady Arrows’ top grappler needed just 95 seconds to dispose of Southridge’s Eva Polley.

“I had a lot of success with my underhooks today,” the junior said of her day. “That is something I have been working on all week and it’s how I got most of them to the mat today and went into chicken wings a lot of the time from there.”

Ramirez’s quickest pin of the day came in the semifinals when she needed just 26 seconds to advance to the title match.

Although she dominated her weight class, the Lady Arrow admitted to having some nerves in the first match of the season.
“I had some knee injuries in the offseason and I didn’t run cross country this year because of it,” she explained. “So I was a little nervous and I hadn’t wrestled many of these girls before.”

As for hosting the first ever girls tournament at Sullivan, the two-time state finalist was excited.

“I have wrestled in here for the winter duals (boys), but today was really exciting,” Ramirez explained. “I love wrestling here in front of our home fans. I am just so excited that our sport is finally sanctioned and I am just excited for the entire season.”

Ramirez was not the only Lady Arrow grappler to have success on Saturday.

Brylee Wilkinson cruised into the championship match at 100. The junior, who also qualified for the girls state championships last season, barely broke a sweat in her first three matches of the day.

Wilkinson needed just a total of 1:43 of mat time to dispose of her first three opponents. In her second match, the Lady Arrow 100-pounder came away with the fastest pin of the day, with a 7-second fall.

But in the finals, Wilkinson ran into another buzzsaw, falling to Bloomington South’s Mariah Pope in the second period.

Pope’s previous three matches before meeting Wilkinson, all ended in the first period.

Lady Arrow junior Jaylen McCammon also had a successful day. The 125-pounder picked up a trio of wins in five total matches.

McCammon won a pair of matches by first-period pins and registered a third pin fall in the second period.

In the third-place match, the Lady Arrow came up on the wrong side of a 9-5 decision.

Rounding out the scoring for Sullivan was sophomore Landrie Fifer. Also competing in the 125-pound weight class, Fifer won 2 of 5 matches. In the fifth-place match, the sophomore fell by a 10-0 major decision.

Fifer’s two wins both came via second-period pins.

North Knox had just one grappler competing on the day.

Harper Kohlhouse, earned a pair of wins at 155 including a fall in the seventh-place match. The 155-pounder erased a 4-1 deficit in the first period of the championship match. Kohlhouse scored the final four points of the first period, taking a 5-4 lead into the second before wrapping up the win with a pin.

The junior also picked up a 33-second pin in her second match of the day.

Thank you to West Side Church of Sullivan for the sponsorship of this story