Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
State wrestling
Searcy, led by a pair of juniors in Lily Dias and top-seeded MyKenzie Clark as well as No. 2 seed sophomore Roselyn Amaya, will be the favorite as the Arkansas Girls State Wrestling Tournament kicks off Wednesday.
Lily Dias clearly recalls the moment she realized her Searcy team had made history.
Megan Evans, the wife of Coach Jerry Evans, walked up to the then-sophomore late in the day, letting her know that the Lions had amassed more than enough points to capture Arkansas’ first girls wrestling team title.
And while Dias already knew — Searcy, with 198 points, finished well ahead of second-place Mountain Home at 125 — it was a moment that took a bit to sink in.
That victory set a standard, and it’s one the Lady Lions will be looking to uphold as this year’s Arkansas Girls State Wrestling Tournament kicks off at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Jack Stephens Center on Wednesday with the girls competition. The boys will then follow, with the first round and quarterfinals Thursday and the semifinals and finals Friday.
Searcy, led by a pair of juniors in Dias and top-seeded MyKenzie Clark as well as No. 2 seed sophomore Roselyn Amaya, will be the favorite on the girls side with seven seeded wrestlers in the 10 classifications.
Although Mountain Home will provide stiff competition along with Bentonville in a field that’s grown from 132 girls representing 30 schools a year ago to 150 wrestlers from 33 programs, the target remains squarely on the Lady Lions’ backs.
“A lot of us had to change the way we wrestled from last year,” Clark said. “Some girls went up a weight class, so they had to learn how to not outmuscle somebody. Some girls went down, and we had to work on different things that fit us more in that weight class. A lot of schools were looking to beat us [after] last year, so we had to look at certain things to make us all better.”
Clark’s improvement bears out in the numbers alone. Despite dropping from 140 pounds to 132, the junior enters the year’s final tournament a perfect 19-0 and the No. 1 wrestler in her classification.
Clark found her way into wrestling after playing defensive end for Searcy’s football team as a freshman.
Knowing that girls wrestling was on its way to being sanctioned, Evans, the Lions’ longtime boys wrestling coach, began scouring the school for enough to put together a roster.
“It was pretty amazing, the sheer number of girls that jumped into the sport,” Evans said. “They were going to get a chance to compete against somebody their exact size and the other teams aren’t going to have somebody who’s done this their whole lives, so they’re going to be going against someone with the same skill level.
“They [had] an opportunity to win a state championship — I told them if we fill out a roster and we fill out all the weight classes [we would], and that’s exactly what happened.”
What’s more critical than her performance on the mat is the role Clark has taken on since the graduation of Maty Lincoln, who rolled to an individual title at 116 pounds last year.
As the team’s veteran leader, Lincoln created a culture where the younger girls knew they could go to her for advice — be it about technique on the mat or questions about life away from it. Clark, along with her classmate Dias, has tried her best to pick up the mantle.
“When there was something going on, [Maty] would always talk to them. She made it feel like a safe place to talk to her and make sure that everything would be okay,” Clark said. “Lily and I always try to make it where the girls can come to us or … they aren’t scared to ask anybody a question about something.”
That has allowed for younger wrestlers like Amaya to return to states as even stronger contenders. After going 20-9 in the regular season as a freshman and finishing fourth at 100 pounds, Amaya has posted a 14-1 mark thus far in her sophomore campaign and will be the No. 2 seed at the same weight.
Although Evans still looks at his smallest competitor and sees the “timid little girl” he remembers recruiting a little more than a year ago, Amaya is drastically changed.
“I wasn’t very aggressive at first,” Amaya said. “Once I started seeing how I could win more matches being [ferocious and] aggressive, it just made me want to keep going.”