Dodge girls dominate WAC wrestling

Hays’ Zimmerman breaks through in Sr. year

When one looks at the exponential growth of high school girls’ wrestling in Kansas, Dodge City Coach Tate Lowe is not the least surprised.

In four years, the growth has seen the state tournament go from one classification for all schools to a division now that includes Class 5-6A and 4-1A. It won’t be a surprise if the classification separation continues as the sport continues to grow.

And perhaps leading the way for this growth is the Western Athletic Conference and the success the teams have enjoyed in the brief time of state tournament competition.

Lowe should know as he guided his Lady Demons to a 4-0 dual record against the WAC schools this winter to capture the conference crown, then won the 6-5A regional before seeing league rival Garden City slide into second at the state with the Red Demons in third. Hays, a 5A school, placed sixth.

In 2022, the Dodge City girls won the state title. In 2021, Garden and Dodge went 3-4 in the final team standings.

“I think you’re seeing a natural evolution of girls’ wrestling in much the same way that we’ve seen the boys over the years,” Lowe said. “The WAC is one of the leading conferences in the state and you could make a case that right now the WAC girls is the toughest conference in Kansas.”

The Lady Demons won dual matches over Garden City, Liberal, Great Bend and Hays to claim the 2023 crown and Lowe said there are any number of reasons for the quality of the programs at the WAC schools.

“First, you’ve got some outstanding coaches who have had success with the boys’ programs,” Lowe said. “You’ve got youth clubs in each community and recently the WAC middle schools started wrestling before anybody else in Kansas.”

This past season, the weight classes went from 12 to 14, demonstrating a need to match the higher interest and number of wrestlers, Lowe said.

“We look at running our girls program just the way we do our boys,” Lowe said. “The boys practice against the boys, the girls against the girls and most of the drills are the same. Programs that are soft on the girls are doing them a disservice because we should hold them to the same standard we do the boys.”

Lowe says as the growth continues he and other coaches will look to expand into junior varsity tournaments, too.

“I knew with our youth clubs that girls’ wrestling would grow but I didn’t think it would grow this fast,” Lowe said. “The WAC has jumped ahead of everyone else and to win the WAC is a big honor. Our teams did well in regionals and obviously they did well at state.”

To better explain the balance in the WAC, on the 14-wrestler all-WAC first team, every school was represented in at least one weight division. Dodge City had six, Garden City three, Hays and Great Bend two each and Liberal one. The future looks bright as five were seniors, two were juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen.

Despite finishing second to Dodge City in the WAC standings, Garden City’s Carlos Prieto was voted WAC Girls’ Wrestling Coach of the Year, an honor Lowe said Prieto deserved.

“I think you have to evaluate teams differently from duals to big tournaments and Garden really improved and came on in a big way at the end of the season,” Lowe said.

SARAH ZIMMERMAN, HAYS, SR., 110-LB. DIVISION, WAC GIRLS’ WRESTLER OF THE YEAR

Eleven days after she won her first and only state wrestling championship, Hays High’s Sarah Zimmerman was notified by her coach, Heath Meder that she had been voted Western Athletic Conference Girls’ Wrestler of the Year. 

Almost in the same time frame, Zimmerman would learn that she was the 6-5A regional and state Senior Girls Wrestler of the Year.

All of this is quite a way for Zimmerman, who won the 110-pound division at the 6-5A state tournament in Park City at Hartman Arena, to celebrate going out of a high school that in many ways was successful but in her mind fell just short of her highest goals.

That’s because in her freshman year at 109 pounds, she placed sixth in 2020. In 2021, she was runner-up at 109 pounds and then her junior season also placed second at 109 with a 29-5 record.

This time around, there was no shortcomings as she completed a stellar 31-1 record with a pin of her toughest opponent, Hutchinson’s Anna Cullens. The pin occurred at the 3:31 mark of the second period and capped off a late run where she beat Cullens in the regionals the week before, also by a pin.

The only loss Zimmerman suffered in her senior campaign came against Cullens when she dropped a 7-3 decision at the Rocky Welton Invitational in Garden City on January 28. Coincidentally, Cullens only lost twice this year.

“I think getting the WAC wrestler of the year is pretty cool and I was a little surprised when Coach called me in to tell me,” Zimmerman said. “I think losing the state final the last two years and now winning, it was a tremendous relief. My nerves were all over the place the entire day. But now I know I won it, and I can celebrate it.”

Zimmerman said that late January loss to Cullens was both a wake-up call as well as an opportunity to plan for anticipated rematches in February.

“She was my main competition and I knew I had to wrestler differently to win,” Zimmerman said. “I had to bring it to her. I used that match (Welton) to look ahead. I didn’t want to show all of my moves and I knew I had to make some changes after seeing some of her moves.”

The biggest improvement for Zimmerman this season came not on just the mat, but also in the mental aspect of the sport.

“Last year I just got in my head and that was always my biggest challenge,” she said. “I would be fighting with myself, convincing myself there was a way I would lose. If you do that, you’re most likely going to lose. I had to fix a few little things, but the biggest thing was in my head.”

Zimmerman said she was a little stronger, a little quicker and a little smarter in her senior season.

“In the past I might not finish a match very well, and this year I got quicker on my feet, worked better from the bottom and wrestled to my strengths,” Zimmerman said. “It was emotional at state. I started crying and I’m a terrible crier. I’ve been taught not to show emotion on the mat, but this time I hugged my teammates, coaches and then my parents.”

Zimmerman, who will wrestle next year for NCAA Division II Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, said the ending to her high school career couldn’t have ended any better.

“I would have liked to have had a perfect record, but as evenly matched as Anna and I are, I think the earlier loss helped me,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a year and a day I will always remember.”

Joining Zimmerman on the all-WAC first team were teammate Tionna Napue (115), Mana Chanthasone of Liberal (100), Jessica Rivera of Dodge city (105), Julissa Rodriguez of Garden City (120), Ariana De La Rosa of Dodge City (125), Belle Hernandez of Garden City (130), Hailey Ramos of Dodge City (135), Yareli Garcia of Dodge City (140), Ashley Arroyo of Dodge City (145), Karime Guzman of Garden City (155), Jolette Almaraz of Dodge City (170), Natalee Daniels of Great Bend (190) and Haylee Holinde of Great Bend (235).

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First -Team All-Conference Selections

WEIGHT	NAME	YEAR	SCHOOL
100	Mana Chanthasone	12	Liberal
105	Jessica Rivera	10	Dodge City
110	Sarah Zimmerman	12	Hays
115	Tionna Napue	10	Hays
120	Julissa Rodriguez	9	Garden City
125	Ariana De La Rosa	11	Dodge City
130	Belle Hernandez	12	Garden City
135	Hailey Ramos	10	Dodge City
140	Yareli Garcia	9	Dodge City
145	Ashley Arroyo	12	Dodge City
155	Karime Guzman	11	Garden City
170	Jolette Almaraz	12	Dodge City
190	Natalee Daniels	9	Great Bend
235	Haylee Holinde	10	Great Bend