By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
PORTLAND, Ore.– Sometimes you just need that little extra kick to get it back going again.
Following her defeat to eventual State Champion in McKay’s Tess Barnett, Dallas’ Kimmy Holgate answered with a fiery passion knowing her goal of wanting to place at the 110-Pound girls State Tournament. Needing a win to place, she got it. A pin at the 2:07 mark over Scappoose’s Emma Jones to reach the third-place match.
“It gave me enough energy to go in with the mindset of ‘I need to win this’. I need to become the first Holgate to place at State,” said Holgate of her mindset after her loss to Barnett.
Holgate’s third-place match was a rematch of her first round match against Bend’s Analise Smith, a 18-0 tech-fall. The Dallas Junior didn’t let up.
Within the first 30 seconds, Holgate built a 4-0 lead. By the end of the first period, she was up 8-0.
“The hot start, it came from just wanting to win. I just felt like I needed to go all out and prove to myself that I can do it. That I can do a lot more than a lot of people think I can,” said Holgate.
Smith caught Holgate in a jam to start the second period, nearly pinning the Dragon wrestler before Holgate slipped out.
“My mind was like, ‘oh crap I need to get out of this. I need to get out. I need to do everything I can, in me, to get out of this so I can get out of this and get ahead and pin her,” said Holgate. “Those few extra points I had, getting on-top of her really helped.”
Holgate would eventually pick up her second technical fall against Smith in the 110-pound State Tournament. The emotion after her consolation semi-final round, the emotion of all the hard work of the season and with her coaches that day let-lone the eight years of waiting for this moment, was worth it.
Now the only thing left as Holgate prepares for her Senior season of wrestling is to win the whole thing in a field that sees Barnett and State Runner-Up Tiana Gilliand (Grants Pass) return.
“My years of wrestling, I’ve always wanted to go to High School State and place and I finally done that and hopefully I can do that next year,” “Next year, I’m going to comeback and I’m going to use the tatics that I did, make them scared along with aggression, fix somethings and try to Bulldog them over.”
Ashton Bretch won the State Title at 285 pounds. Copper Hise was fourth at 195, Issac Jones (113), Cael Morrison (132) each finish fifth.
