“When I first met the team, I didn’t even talk to anyone. They brought me out of my shell and treated me better than anyone else in the world,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I love them more than anything.”
Cuyler went out in style, claiming the 152-pound title at Saturday’s Virginia girls’ wrestling state championship meet at Gar-Field High in Woodbridge. Only 60 seconds elapsed from the opening whistle of her final match to her hand being raised by the referee following a pin, a grin showing as she looked to her supporters in the bleachers.
Winning has been a habit of Cuyler’s since she started wrestling for the Tigers as a sophomore. Ranked sixth in the nation at 145 pounds by FloWrestling, she will leave to compete for Presbyterian College as a three-time state champion.
“It feels amazing,” Cuyler said. “I worked so hard with my team, with my family, and I can’t believe they got me here.”
Lily Oh, a freshman at Riverside, pinned her opponent to claim the 120-pound title. Potomac’s Mahalia Adams won the 185-pound final by fall. Eleanor Dean of Freedom (South Riding) won at 138 pounds.
“To finally get my moment is the best feeling ever,” said Dean, a junior who finished second at the state meet the previous two years. “I was just so happy. I was waiting to just run to my coaches and give them a hug.”
Saturday’s meet was just the second girls’ wrestling championship sanctioned by the Virginia High School League — an unofficial tournament was held in 2022 — and the event’s growth has been remarkable. More than 400 wrestlers competed this year — well over 100 more than last year — with 143 schools represented, a year-over-year increase of 25.
Dean recalled having just seven others in her bracket at her first state tournament. Just two years later, her weight class had 52 participants. Cuyler has seen a similar trend.
“When I came in sophomore year, it was just me and one other girl. We’d have to work really hard to find tournaments,” she said. “But then we just got swept up into this whirlwind. … I’m super happy to see it’s growing, and I think it’s going to explode from here.”