Girls-only division featured for first time at wrestling tournament

The O’Fallon Panther Pummel is always one of the bigger junior wrestling tournaments in Illinois.  

What made this year special is that for the first time it featured a girls-only division.

Twenty-seven lady grapplers competed in this, one of four IKWF tournaments this year including a girls division.  

This made it the second largest regular-season gathering of female wrestlers in Illinois wrestling history.

Four of those girls were A-J Junior Wildcats.

Wrestling at 41.6 pounds was 6-year-old Zoee Sadler, who went 0-3 for the day and finished fourth.  

“She wrestled her heart out,” bragged father and coach Andy Sadler. “She was all heart.”

Eight-year-old Madilyn Hawk wrestled at 96.2 pounds in both the girls’ and boys’ divisions, finishing 1-4 for the day with two third-place trophies.  

“She earned the respect of a lot of wrestlers and coaches for competing in both divisions, including me,” explained her father and coach Rollie Hawk.

Jacy Mays wrestled at 80.2 pounds and went 1-1 for the day, finishing second.  

“Jacy has become a much better wrestler that her record reflects,” said Hawk.  “She’s a first-year wrestler and starting older than most of our kids. But she’s stuck it out and is showing a lot of improvement.”

Rounding out the girls on the squad was Catie Mays, who wrestled at 88.2 pounds and finished 2-0 for the day, earning first place for the first time this year.  

“Catie is only a second-year wrestler but is one of our hardest workers and is becoming one of our main leaders on the team,” said Hawk. “We were glad to finally see her finish in first.”

Eight boys also made the long trip to O’Fallon.  Results from the tournament follow, with the name of the wrestler, age, weight and record:

Zoee Sadler, 6, 41.6, 0-3, 4th. Drew Sadler, 6, 44.0, 2-1, 2nd.

Brett Smith, 7, 54.8, 0-3, 4th. Caleb Mays, 7, 53.8, 1-2, 3rd.

Blake Mays, 8, 62.8, 3-0, 1st. Madilyn Hawk, 8, 96.2, 0-2, 3rd (girls); 1-2, 3rd (boys).

Dylan Smith, 10, 60.6, 0-2. Jacy Mays, 10, 80.2, 1-1, 2nd.

Adams Mays, 10, 92.0, 0-5, 6th. Catie Mays, 12, 88.2, 2-0, 1st.

Jeff Fombelle, 13, 203.4, 0-3, 4th. Nick Jimenez, 14, 259.0, 1-1, 2nd.