Kickapoo may not be known as a wrestling powerhouse, yet the Chiefs walked away from the state meet with a state champion last weekend.
Wendy Riley-Washington is just the third Kickapoo wrestler to win state, and she’s hoping her win is just the start of her success.
Wendy Riley-Washington didn’t always wrestle for the love of the sport.
“I wasn’t wrestling for myself I was wrestling for the approval of other people,” she said.
Wendy spent her first two years in high school in Illinois, quitting the sport as a sophomore.
“I just thought I was done with wrestling then, but turns out I’m not,” added the Kickapoo junior.
After moving to Springfield and starting school at Kickapoo, she began wrestling again.
“She’s a coach’s dream. She does everything you ask of her. Very humble, very coachable, and obviously very talented,” Kickapoo wrestling coach Billy Buckley said.
This year Wendy went 30-1, becoming Kickapoo’s first girls’ wrestler to capture a state title.
“It makes me grateful, and I’ve been so blessed. Blessed with great coaches, environment, support system and it’s everything I could’ve ever asked for,” Wendy said.
With a state title under her belt, she says she’s hoping this is a new start to the Kickapoo program.
“It’s a new era at Kickapoo.” Wendy continued, “Girls are starting to come up to me now like ‘How can I start wrestling?’”
“She’s kind of become the face of our girls’ program. This year we only had two girls but obviously with the success that she’s had this year hopefully that garners some interest from some of our other female students here at Kickapoo,” Buckley said.
For those new to the sport, she has some advice that helped her reach the top.
“Take it one match at a time. Take it one practice at a time. Just keep improving as much as you can every day and each time you get the opportunity to do so, and at the end you’ll reach that bigger goal,” said Wendy.
