‘It’s been a good day.’ Tates Creek wrestler is Lexington’s first female to make state.
Tates Creek’s Trinity Gottler became one of two female high school wrestlers to qualify for next week’s first round of the KHSAA state championships with her third-place finish Saturday at the Region 6 championships at Great Crossing High School.
“I feel amazing. It’s been a good day,” said Gottler, who pinned her final two opponents in the 165 class to earn third after dropping into the consolation bracket with a loss in the semifinals. The top four finishers in each class make state. “I was coming in as the third seed, so I wanted to at least get third.”
Joining Gottler at state will be Woodford County’s Lauren Walton, who finished second in the Region 4 championships’ 126 class at Waggener High School in Louisville. Walton won her way to the region finals with two falls and a 5-0 decision before losing the championship match on points 6-3 to Moore’s Xavier Gonzalez.
The first round of the state tournament will be held Saturday, Feb. 18, at Atherton High School in Louisville for Regions 1-4 and at Ryle High School in Union for Regions 5-8 in order to narrow the field for the final round at George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester on Feb. 24-25.
Both Gottler and Walton won their respective classes at last week’s Kentucky Wrestling Coaches Association Girls’ State Championships. That 5-year-old event is expected to be replaced by a sanctioned KHSAA girls’ state championship as soon as next year. Girls’ wrestling is not yet an official Kentucky High School Athletic Association sport. When it becomes one, girls will still be able to compete with boys at the co-ed event if they choose.
Prior to this year, only five girls had qualified for the KHSAA’s state wrestling event, a competition exclusive to boys until Campbell County’s Priscilla Brownfield made state in 2006. Brownfield remains the most successful girls’ wrestler in the state tournament with a 3-2 record that year at 103 pounds, the lightest class at the time.
In 2019, Woodford County’s Ashley Courtney qualified at 106 and Perry County Central’s Destiny Eldridge qualified at 113. In 2020, Ryle’s Olivia Messerly and Madison Southern’s Amelia Foltz qualified in the 106 class.
That makes Tates Creek’s Gottler a pioneer for girls’ wrestling at “co-ed” state at 165 pounds.
“I didn’t want to cut weight this year,” said Gottler, a senior Campbellsville signee who wrestled for Anderson County prior to this season and participated in past years’ regionals at 152 as a sophomore and 170 as an eighth-grader. “I wanted to be at my natural weight and work more on gaining more muscle.”
That decision, of course, paid off.
“It’s awesome to see her end her senior year like that,” Tates Creek Coach Scotty Teater said. “It’s just a culmination of years and years of hard work. … To go to state, especially being a girl and being at a heavier weight class where the guys are really strong, it just means that much more.”
Gottler began wrestling as a middle-schooler as a way to keep active during the softball offseason. It was her grandfather Ken Hockensmith’s idea. Hockensmith had been a wrestling coach on and off over the years and was once head coach at Western Hills. He was helping build a middle school program there and brought his granddaughter in to work out with another girl who had turned out.
It wasn’t long before Hockensmith began to realize Gottler had something special about her on the mat wrestling against mostly older boys.
“She won some, though she lost more than she won. But her thing was: She’s not going to get pinned,” Hockensmith said of Gottler’s determination. “To her, to not get pinned by older boys was winning. … She refused to give up, and honestly, that’s a lot of what wrestling is.”
Hockensmith said he taught Gottler that she should end every match by immediately reaching down to take off the red/green identifying band all wrestlers wear to help officials track their score. That ritual, Hockensmith said, was to give her a moment to gather her emotions, win or lose.
But after securing her third-place medal with a pin Saturday, Gottler couldn’t help herself. She quickly rose off the mat with a broad smile and a double flex of her biceps in celebration.
“It means a lot. I’m kind of proud of myself,” Gottler said. “I put a lot of work in this year — senior year — and I made it to guys’ state.”
Hockensmith said he’d “cut her some slack” this time given the circumstances.
This story was originally published February 12, 2023 at 9:12 AM.
