Omaha Westview's Kalynn Lyons, top, held on to beat Bennington's Maycee Peacher for the Class A 130-pound title. Peacher was going for state history: the first girls state champion and the first four timer in girls wrestling.
STU POSPISIL
WorldHerald Staff Writer
Kalynn Lyons took away the storybook finish Wednesday night from a three time state champion.
Bennington's Maycee Peacher was going for the state's first career sweep in girls wrestling, but Lyons beat her 6-4 in the Class A 130-pound final Wednesday night at CHI Health Center.
"I still can't process it. Like, I've been daydreaming about this moment basically ever since I started," the Omaha Westview junior said.
Not that the title win was a shock. Lyons (30-2) dealt Peacher (41-3) one of her two regular-season losses in a quadrangular at Bennington last month.
"I manifested it. I told myself from the time that I knew that she was bumping up to wrestle 130 I could beat her again and I know I'm the best," Lyons said. "I'm the best."
Peacher got a first-period takedown and a second-period escape. But in the up position in the final period, she was stalemated and didn't score.
Lyons did her scoring in the second period with a takedown, worth three points beginning this year, and three back points.
"I take down. I could score a lot of points and she can't stop me," Lyons said. "It was going to be a fight, but I fought harder and better."
Lyons wrestled at state with a shoulder harness.
"I went through a lot of challenges and setbacks and losses this year, but as you can see, like that doesn't keep me down," she said. "I never would have thought that this would be my path to go down this year.
"I'm just so blessed. I have amazing support, family, everybody that's been here."
The loss was crushing for Peacher, who was trying for bookend firsts -- the first to be a state champion and the first to be a four-timer in girls wrestling.
Wednesday's finals began with Norfolk in Class A and Yutan in Class B already assured of their first team titles.
Norfolk's one champion was senior Victoria Maxey at 145, undefeated this season.
The Panthers outdistanced 2024 champion Omaha Westside 142-120.5.
Yutan came home with golds from junior Addisyn Darling at 110, Aubrie Pehrson at 125 and Jordyn Campbell at 130.
The Chieftains owned a 13097 advantage over runner-up Columbus Lakeview.
This was the first year for a two-class tournament and the first for girls having the arena to themselves after three years as part of the boys tournament, which starts Thursday.
Other finals of note included defending champion Aniya Roberts of Grand Island (342) taking a 7-3 decision from two-time champion Zoey Barber of Westside at Class A 155.
Madelynn Bohnet of South Sioux City pinned Mara Vanderpool of Westside in 1:11 at Class A 105 in the one final that pitted undefeated wrestlers.
Jocelyn Prado of Johnson County and Yutan's Pehrson became the third and fourth three-time champions.
Prado finished her career on a 114-match winning streak when she won her third 100-pound title, pinning Auburn freshman Hadley Mazzulla in 1:49.
Pehrson, also a senior, needed 58 seconds to finish off West Holt sophomore Felycia Kerkman. All three of her titles came at Yutan. She took third last year when she wrestled for Omaha Skutt.
Stu's Views
Success story: Separate girls and boys tournaments are here to stay. There has been record ticket sales for the five-day CHI Health Center carnival and the NSAA's new contract with the arena ensures this will be wrestling week in Omaha for another four years.
Attendance: The finals drew a scanned ticket count of 4,183, not quite the 5,100 for the Iowa state championships. But sold tickets for the three sessions were 16,000. Iowa also didn't have 30-below wind chills, which has left the arena-floor level concourse at meat-locker temperature.
Records: Three-time champion Aubrie Pehrson of Yutan has set the bar high for career victories, finishing with a 204-8 record. Conestoga junior Maggie Fiene is the first with 56 wins in a season.
Two for Westview: Audre Herron's win over defending champion Caitlyn Sohm of South Sioux City at Class A 235 put her in the winner's circle with the story of the night, 130-pound winner Kalynn Lyons, as they are the first two wrestling champions from Omaha Westview.