Lady Diamonds state-qualifying wrestlers looking forward to state tourney
Four Sallisaw Lady Diamonds wrestlers are looking forward to a big season-ending weekend at the Class 5A State Tournament, which will take place Thursday through Saturday at Oklahoma City’s Jim Norick State Fair Arena.
Sallisaw Lady Diamonds’ lone senior, 190-pounder Hannah Lightfoot, was glad to end her high school career by three-peating as a state qualifier.
“It feels really good,” said Lightfoot, who was this season’s homecoming queen. “I’m glad that I get to go again. I will get to have one more chance to place and prove myself as a wrestler.”
Lightfoot said when she knew the three-peat was locked in, emotions overwhelmed her.
“It felt good,” the Sallisaw senior wrestler said. “There were a lot of emotions in the air. There was a lot of excitement in the air, not only from myself but my teammates and the other people who were in my (190-pound) bracket. It was a really good win seeing as that girl beat me at Maverick (Conference Tournament, which took place Jan. 26-27 at Poteau High School’s Sherman Floyd Fieldhosue).”
Three other freshmen wrestlers qualified for state in their first varsity chance to do so — 145-pounder Mikaylynn Gaghins, 155-pounder Emilie Robbins and heavyweight Jamie Martin — were simply thrilled with qualifying for state at the Class 5A Regional Tournament, which took place Feb.
13 in Okmulgee with Dewar as the host school.
“It was kind of crazy,” Gaghins said. “It’s my first time going to state. I felt really excited because everybody was cheering me on. It felt really great.”
“I was just like really happy to finally accomplish my goal as a freshman and actually qualify for state as a freshman because it’s very unlikely for that to happen,” Robbins said. “It was just a bunch of emotions. I was crying tears of joy. It was the happiest time of my life.”
“When I first found out I qualified for state I felt that I wasn’t ready, even now I feel the same because I don’t have as much experience as the rest of my teammates with this being my first year in wrestling,” Martin said.
It was hard for each state qualifier to put into words just exactly how they might be feeling Saturday night at State Fair Arena should any or all of them be crowned a state champion.
“I will probably be crying and really excited that all my years of high school wrestling will have finally paid off for that one moment,” Lightfoot said. “I will probably be more excited that I would finally get my name on the state champions board. It’s going to set an example for everybody after me that they should never give up. No matter how hard they push, their dreams can come true.”
“I would probably be really excited,” Gaghins said. “It would be my first time. I would actually have a goal that I will have accomplished that I’ve really wanted, so I would be really excited and happy for myself.”
“I would just think that all my goals were finally accomplished,” Robbins said. “My whole teammates have been very supportive of me. I will be so happy.”
“If I won the championship I don’t know how I would feel because I got lucky getting this far but I hope that people would be proud of me,” Martin said.
