CASC’s Miller ready for bigger stage after fifth-place finish at nationals
After winning her second NJCAA wrestling championship on March 2 — the first in Carl Albert State College history to win two individual championships — Lexi Miller earned fifth in the 50 kilogram division at the women’s U23 national championship event, which took place April 12-14 in Spokane, Wash.
“I’m capable of more than I give myself credit for. I’ve been working on not wrestling to my competition, but wrestling as hard as I can. I figured out a lot of good things about myself. At that tournament, I didn’t have any negative outcomes,” she said. “I’m not as far behind as I think I am sometimes. Sometimes I think I’m not training as hard as I could be or I don’t have the tools that some of these girls have when in reality I’m doing everything right. I proved that I do belong at those tournaments.”
She went 5-2 at the event, winning the first round before losing the second round to Kayla McKinley-Johnson of Menlo College and winning three straight matches before taking an 11-1 technical fall loss to Avy Perez of California in the consolation semifinals and getting fifth due to McKinley-Johnson taking an injury forfeit.
“I wouldn’t say the second match was the biggest challenge. It was definitely a match I was prepared for. It didn’t go my way. I ended up getting pinned, but before that I had the girl on her back. It was one of those things where I made a small mistake and she capitalized on it,” Miller said.
She pinned her first opponent in the 32-wrestler bracket, Angelina Rediger of Kansas, in 56 seconds before being pinned by McKinley. In the consolation bracket, she earned a 10-8 decision, a pinfall in 41 seconds and a 10-0 technical fall.
“It was the first tournament where I wrestled more than one full match this year,” she said. “It was good to have that time and experience. I knew my conditioning was fine. I knew I was capable to wrestle a full match. It just doesn’t come down to that in the school year. When I wrestle those full matches, it shows I’m capable of going hard for six minutes straight.”
That earned her a U23 All-American honor at an event where she was competing for an Olympic spot.
Miller said this experience showed her where she needed to be in order to compete at the national championship level.
“I like challenging myself and testing myself. Going up from the competition I was at is something I really thrive on,” she said.
Miller found that she had to use more moves, eventually winning by points or a technical fall.
“it’s just not as likely to pin people at level,” she said. “Everything’s different on that level — their speed, strength, technique. There are girls that train at the Olympic training Center, at high-level facilities.”
To Miller’s knowledge, there were no other JuCo wrestlers in the 50-kilogram bracket. Three of the wrestlers she beat were from NCAA Division II programs.
After recovering from the NJCAA national tournament, she had four weeks to train before going to Spokane. She trained with different people to get different looks.
“I knew I needed to get outside my comfort zone,” she said.
Having finished her CASC career, Miller is shifting her focus to competing professionally in tournaments. CASC head coach Jake Lords said she is choosing a unique path, whereas other wrestlers go to four-year colleges while aiming for national tournaments and Olympic bids.
Miller has two years of eligibility left at the U23 division. She will spend the next year training with different people and training with the CASC women’s team.
“We’ll continue to go to these tournaments. We have more tournaments to go to that are U23 and age-level tournaments,” she said.
Through wrestling these tournaments, she would get familiar with the competition for the top placements in the biggest events.
Her goal is to make the world team. Placing in the top three at the national championship or the U.S. Open would give her a good chance.
Miller said she recognized she has everything she needs at CASC.
“Everything we need, the coaching staff, we have everything here that we need to be successful. That’s not something I always appreciated. When I got here, it was all new to me. I didn’t know what junior colleges had to offer. When I got here, it completely changed my perspective,” she said. “I don’t think I could go to a DI program and have more than what I have here.”