Tildsley

of these girls have already made their marks and I hadn’t competed at this tournament before. I was a little nervous, of course, but when you go to the little tournaments you are less nervous, so I think it’s good to get to the big stage so you can get all of the nerves out.”

In a 32-person bracket, Tildsley was seeded last and faced the No. 1 seed, Oregon’s Destiny Rodriguez. She was the winner of the Pan America Games in Mexico, the World Combat Games in Hungary and was a force to be reckoned with.

Tildsley fared very well, trailing 2-0 after the first period, before losing 6-0, although she said the referees granted Rodriguez two additional points after the third period buzzer had ended.

“My mind set was that this girl was really good. I knew that I didn’t have the most ideal draw but I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to go out there and wrestle my hardest and show people that my hard work and all of the time that I have been putting in has helped me get better and better, and I can compete with these girls. I was relaxed out there and it was just my time to do my own thing,” she said.

After that, Tildsley had a five-hour break before meeting her next opponent, who was the Maryland state champion. Trailing, 2-1, with 30 seconds to go in the third period, Tildsley made a move and was able to win the match by pin.

“It took a while to get the pin. I had a lot of people in my corner and I was listening really close and they were all telling me to look up (while I was trying to pin her) and they were just telling me what to do. I kept my cool, I listened to them and I got the pin,” she said.

In her third match, she was again up against a state champion, this time from California, who took Tildsley down for two points in the first period, which was all of the scoring of the 2-0 match.

Although she would have liked to have won more, Tildsley realizes that facing nationally ranked opponents will only help her get better in high school.

She is currently on the Shawsheen Tech boys’ team, only because the sport got moved to the spring season. Normally in the winter, she is a member of the Tech’s swim team, but was able to compete in the girls’ wrestling state tournament as a freshman and sophomore.

Outside of ST, she is a part of the Doughboy Club and competes in all kinds of state and national tournaments.

“This past year, I have been working so hard with practices, lifting weights and just doing so much more with the sport,” she said. “As times goes on, I’m just falling in love with it, more and more and I just want to keep getting better. Having my dad and my brothers with me, means so much. Even though my brothers are younger than me, they are my role models. I have seen them compete at these national meets and they always do really good, and they are just beasts on the mat. I love having my dad in my corner, because he knows how I wrestle, he knows how to coach me and he knows what’s going to work for me. I also get such great support from Doughboy and the Shawsheen Tech team, and I’m just so thankful to be competing and to get all of the opportunities that we have been getting.”