Wichita-area state champions double as pioneers for high school girls wrestling in Kansas

High school girls wrestling is still in its infancy stage in Kansas, but three Wichita-area seniors have helped push the sport forward with their courage and recently cemented their legacies as state champions.

Amara Ehsa spearheaded a battle against the stigma of girls in the Derby wrestling room and won. After being shunned by the boys as one of the only girls wrestlers her freshman year, Ehsa persevered to win three straight state titles and see more than 30 girls join the team by her senior year.

Jayla Johnson had never wrestled in her life before joining the team at Kapaun Mt. Carmel. She showed the power of hard work and determination, pouring herself into a new sport to graduate from a novice to her school’s first state champion in three short years.

Meya Howell transformed an entire wrestling room with her enduring positivity and uplifting spirit her first year at Maize South. But her resilience serves as an example of what is possible, as she used two past losses in the state finals as motivation to return again as a senior and this time climb to the top of the podium.

“I want to be a role model, and I hope my story can influence younger girls at Kapaun to try new things and not be scared to put themselves out there,” Johnson said. “There might be people who think it’s weird, but at the end of the day, none of that matters. It’s all about that rewarding feeling you get when you put in hard work.”

“When you do hard things,” Ehsa said, “you feel good about yourself.”

“Girls wrestling is becoming more popular, but there are still people who don’t think it’s a sport for girls,” Howell said. “I want to normalize girls wrestling and show that we can wrestle too. I’m glad I can leave a reputation behind so when girls walk into that room when I’m gone, they know they can do it too.”

As girls wrestling celebrated its fifth year as a sanctioned sport by KSHSAA, the stories of these three Wichita-area state champions show how far the sport has come in such a short time.

‘It’s all here because of her’: Amara Ehsa helps build Derby girls wrestling

A trend in the first five years of girls wrestling, at least in the Wichita area, has been the reluctance of tradition-rich boys programs fully embracing a girls team.

Amara Ehsa lived through the rough transition during her freshman year at Derby, which has produced a pair of team state titles and nine individual gold medalists in its boys program the past decade.

“Bigger programs have struggled a little bit more building their girls programs because you have such a strong culture and the work ethic is so top-notch,” Derby girls coach Kelly Heincker said. “Girls wrestling was in its infancy, but the boys thought they should come in and be the exact same right away. Every new sport needs time to grow, but getting teenagers to understand that is sometimes a struggle. Amara definitely had a lot of turmoil to fight through just to be accepted.”

The first year wrestling at Derby was difficult for Ehsa. She competed against opponents on the weekends, only to return to her own wrestling room the following week and still feel like she had opposition.

“The boys didn’t take me seriously,” Ehsa said. “They thought I was going to quit.”

It only strengthened her resolve, not only to keep winning, but to become an ambassador for girls wrestling at Derby.

Her first year at Derby, Ehsa was one of three girls. This year, more than 30 joined the team. Ehsa was a catalyst in recruiting newcomers and building them up. She spent so much time invested in working with teammates, Heincker was forced to implement a rule to ensure Ehsa was making enough time to focus on her own goals.

“She brings so much energy and enthusiasm to our room, and her willingness to build up the next generation of new girls has made for a great culture with our girls program,” Heincker said. “But I had to tell her, ‘Amara, I’ve got to have you focus on you.’”

For the third straight year, Ehsa entered last week’s state tournament not ranked No. 1 in her weight class. And for the third straight year, she left with a gold medal draped around her neck.

She has felt doubted her entire career, which is why Ehsa broke down sobbing in the immediate moments after winning the 105-pound title at the Class 6-5A state tournament. She finally picked herself up and after being announced the champion, Ehsa headed straight for a bear hug with Heincker, the coach who has believed in her from the start.

Ehsa’s legacy is complete, not just as a three-time state champion, but as a pioneer for the sport. She has helped drive the exploding popularity of girls wrestling in Derby, and her success led to a drastic improvement in support from the boys team.

“Every program needs someone like Amara to be the building block,” Heincker said. “Her impact goes way beyond any of her results. It’s about who she is. In 20 years, maybe someday if she has a daughter who wrestles, she can come back here and watch the program and know that it’s all here because of her.”

‘I put everything I had into this’: Meya Howell finally gets over the hump

For the last three years, Meya Howell has carried the stinging memories of coming so close to fulfilling a dream and it not happening.

She had lost in the state finals as a freshman and sophomore, then didn’t wrestle in the postseason last year. She had transferred to a new school, Maize South, which had no reputation for girls wrestling, and was down to her last chance to win a title.

“There was a lot of praying to get me to where I am,” Howell said. “I had to trust that God had a plan behind everything. So every day I walked in the room, I put all of my motivation, all of my time and dedication and everything I had into this.”

Howell had been pinned both times in her previous appearances in the state finals, a mental block she said was never an issue for her 235-pound final against Gardner-Edgerton’s Karen Rodriguez.

It was a cathartic moment for Howell when she converted a sweep single, her signature move, to take Rodriguez down and pin her 22 seconds into the second period. A look of pure ecstasy washed over Howell’s face before the official even slapped the mat to finalize the result.

“It’s because it took everything in me to keep pushing to get to this moment,” Howell said. “I knew I could do it. Even when I kept coming up short, I felt like I could really accomplish this. And now, I feel like my senior year is complete.”

It was a special moment for Maize South girls coach Jared Vogel, who understood exactly the sense of accomplishment Howell felt in that moment. Back in his high school career at Bishop Carroll, Vogel also lost in the state finals two straight years before winning a title his senior year.

“This has been building for four years for her,” Vogel said. “I know what it feels like to be that close that many times and to lose. When you finally do get over the hump, it’s overwhelming.”

Howell hopes her story can serve as an inspiration to other girls at Maize South, which had never had a state medalist before Howell’s championship.

“Next year when I’m not here, I want girls to see that representation in the wrestling room,” Howell said. “There is going to be a future to this, so I wanted to show girls, ‘This is how you should be treated, and this is what you can do in this sport.’”

‘I love the community’: Kapaun wrestler finds fellowship in new sport

When Kapaun Mt. Carmel offered girls wrestling for the first time in 2022, Jayla Johnson’s father encouraged her to give the new sport a try.

She had grown up playing basketball, but Johnson was intrigued by the challenge of something new. She walked into the wrestling room the first day of practice with zero knowledge of the sport.

After her first season of wrestling, Johnson was hooked.

“I love the community of girls wrestling,” Johnson said. “I’ve never played a sport where the coaches and the athletes care about you so much. The team really was like a family. I felt like I belonged. Everyone bonded through the hard work we were doing and being pushed to our limits. It really gives you a sense of accomplishment that I never really felt in other sports.”

It turned out Johnson was a natural. By her second year, Johnson was already wrestling for a state title. She lost in last year’s finals, but the slice of success only intensified her work ethic.

She trained an entire year to write a different ending to her senior year. And when she returned to the 140-pound finals last weekend, Johnson was surgical in a 5-1 victory over top-ranked Lexi Burton of Hays. When the final horn sounded, Johnson bounced off the mat and threw both of her arms in the air to celebrate the accomplishment of becoming the first girls state champion in school history.

“I was extremely nervous because I felt a lot of pressure to be the first girl at my school to win,” Johnson said. “So when I actually won, I felt very, very excited to finally accomplish one of my dreams. I never thought I would actually end up a state champ.”

Winning is always fun, regardless of the sport, but Johnson said girls wrestling offers so much more than just the competition.

“Wrestling has become a huge part of my life and I’ve made a lot of deep connections and close friends through the sport,” Johnson said. “Wrestling has provided me with a support system through difficult times in my life. I love it because I feel like I can always go to practice and release all of my emotions and it’s been such a good outlet for me.”

Kapaun coach Quinton Burgess said Johnson’s success story can serve as motivation to any girl wondering what they could accomplish in wrestling.

“Anytime your hardest worker and your most dedicated athlete is your best wrestler and they win a state title, that sends home a lot of really good messages to the rest of the kids in the room,” Burgess said. “Jayla proved that if you do things the right way and work hard enough for long enough, good things are going to happen for you.”