Little experience, no problem for Clinton Prairie’s Rose Day as the Gophers junior heavyweight placed seventh last Friday in the Indiana High School Girls Wrestling State Finals in the 250 lb. weight class.
The victory marked one of few matches under the belt of Day this season after she was sidelined for a chunk of the regular season.
Little time spent on the mat against differing opponents proved to be little to no problem for Day as Clinton Prairie head coach Joey Mitchell broke down what he saw from his state qualifier.
“She didn’t have a whole lot of mat time this year going into state finals and wrestled her first match of the season at regionals,” Mitchell said.
“We go into the state finals and we’re like man, we’re not sure how well we’re gonna do here. This girl we drew in the first round is good, been wrestling all year and Rose goes out there and pins her and I thought, ‘wow, we may have something here.’”
Vivian Parke of Columbia City served as Day’s opening round opponent but ultimately served as her first taste of success in the state finals as Day went on to pin Parke at the 4:33 mark.
While Day finished Friday placing as one of the top finishers in the state, Mitchell believes there are more great things to come.
“She’s a big strong girl. She loves to power lift. She works hard and we’re excited about what maybe can come of next season especially if we can get a full season out of her. I think a couple of her losses this season was just from lack of experience,” he said.
Day later went on to wrestle Aubrey Bartkowiak of Attica in the ensuing round but lost by way of fall in the first two minutes.
“I think she’s come a long way with her endurance and strength,” Mitchell said. “Technique wise, we have a lot of cleaning up to do there but after a good offseason, I think if we work a lot of technique stuff in the offseason, I think she’s going to do a heck of a lot better than seventh place next year. I look forward to what the future holds for her.”
