Read about the St. Louis area's top high school girls wrestling athletes and their accomplishments throughout the 2023-24 season.
The Francis Howell Central High girls wrestling squad was in a battle for a state championship at Mizzou Arena.
Heading into the medal round of the Class 2 tournament, the Spartans trailed Nixa by 7 1/2 points and led Lebanon by 1 point.
"At that point, I stressed to the girls that we'd already won a state trophy and that it was up to them which trophy we'd come home with," Spartans coach Kurt Kruse recalled. "And then they went out, they fought for their team and they got the bonus points they needed."
Howell Central came on strong to win five of its last six matches as the Spartans (125 1/2) beat out Nixa (125) and Lebanon (124 1/2) for the St. Louis area's first team state title in girls wrestling.
Spartans junior Kailey Benson, who recorded a first-period pin to capture the championship at 120 pounds and put the finishing touch on a 45-0 season, led the way for the Spartans.
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Benson is the Post-Dispatch All-Metro girls wrestler of the year.
The Spartans also got standout efforts from seniors Stevie Lupo (third place), Sophie Johnson (third), Alana Braun (fourth) and Katelyn Guth (fifth) as well as juniors Nevaeh Smith (third) and Dana Thee Sanchez (third).
"I love this team,'' Benson said. "These girls worked so hard to better themselves and we know we wouldn't have accomplished what we did without each girl on the team doing her part. It was a great way to end the season and I'm especially happy for the seniors, getting a chance to finish as state champions. Now it's up to the rest of us to keep working so that we can defend that title next year."
Benson claimed her individual championship by pinning Francis Howell's Anna Bowles 1 minute and 42 seconds into the title match. It made her Howell Central's first individual girls wrestling state champ and helped Howell Central win its first team championship in a Missouri State High School Activities Association-sponsored sport.
Knowing Benson would need to win by fall to give Howell Central a chance to capture the team title, Kruse said he turned to dad jokes to lighten the mood before her championship match.
"I don't know if it helped, but Kailey went out and she did what she's done all season ... she dominated,'' Kruse said.
Benson earned second-team All-Metro honors to cap her first two seasons at Howell Central, placing fourth at 115 pounds as a 27-8 freshman and second at 115 as a 42-5 sophomore.
But Kruse saw a different wrestler when this season started.
"This is a young lady who hadn't wrestled before she got to high school,'' the coach stressed. "Her background in jiu-jitsu helped a lot, but it also created some problems. In her first season, I can remember saying, 'No, no, no,' as she somehow found ways to get out of the situations she created.
"But the progress she's made and continues to make is nothing short of incredible, She's worked extremely hard in the offseason and the results speak for themselves. She's currently ranked fifth nationally and I honestly can't wait to see just how good she can be going forward."
More than half of Benson's victories this season resulted in pins and another seven were decided by technical fall. Her closest match, a 5-0 decision, came against two-time state champion and three-time finalist Cassidy Benwell of Holt.
Benson cites the state title and a fourth-place national finish in Fargo, N.D., last summer as career highlights. She admits to still feeling nervous before big matches but notes that experience at that level helps to ease the tension.
"I've accomplished a lot over the last year and with each experience, I feel a little more comfortable in those situations,'' she said. "I feel like the more I work, the better I become and the more experiences I go through, the more confident I am in my skills and my abilities. But at the same time, I still feel like there's plenty of room for improvement and that it's important for me to keep working and pushing myself to get better."
Benson trains regularly at the Purler Wrestling Academy and is looking forward to competing this weekend at 35th annual High School Nationals in Virginia Beach, Va.
A top-level student with hopes of one day becoming a clinical pathologist, Benson hopes to continue wrestling beyond high school and already has made a visit to Oklahoma State, which has a women's club program.
Currently, the only schools with NCAA Division I women's programs are Lindenwood University, the University of Iowa, Presbyterian College of South Carolina and Sacred Heart University of Connecticut.
"I'd like to study pre-med with an opportunity to go on to medical school and at this point, women's wrestling is still a new and growing sport,'' she said. "It's a little frustrating — athletes in other sports seem to have more options right now — but I'm a junior so I plan to focus a lot more on my future plans this spring and summer."
Read about the St. Louis area's top high school girls wrestling athletes and their accomplishments throughout the 2023-24 season.