Eagan High School’s girls wrestling team knocked it out of the park in their 2025-2026 season, bringing multiple athletes to the state tournament and taking home two state titles. From working hard in practice to fighting for success at state championships, the team has been demonstrating its strength while representing Eagan.

Captains Ellie Westerman, Taniah Borney, and Maddy Jensen were asked about what it’s like to be in wrestling and what it’s like to be on the team. “When you’re competing, it’s just you,” said Westerman, “but we’ve actually found that, like, there’s a lot of team that goes into the individual. You’re constantly cheering each other on; you’re pushing your partner in practice every day to get better.” 

Jensen also talked about the rigor of the team’s practices. “It’s a lot of conditioning. Technique is definitely my favorite part of it, because you get to learn more, but practices are really hard physically.” Jensen also mentioned how the girls have designated partners of their weight class they train with, promoting team community while practicing some of the harder parts of wrestling. According to the captains, practice is almost every day after school, sometimes for three hours straight, with tournaments weekly. It’s a big-time commitment, but one that has paid off for many of them.  

Practice is where they hone their skills, but it’s at tournaments that the girls demonstrate them. Borney described what a typical match at a tournament looks like, and how you can win, “At a wrestling tournament, you usually have a six-minute period match, and you can either win by ‘major points’, ‘tech fall’, or by ‘pinning’ someone.”  

This year, a few members and all three captains went to the Girls Wrestling State Championships. “We [the team] just leave it all out there on the mat and do the best we can, working through positions, and it really worked this year,” said Westerman, who brought back second place at this year’s tournament. 

This seems especially true for Borney, who came out of the tournament as the first in the history of the team to win first at state, having a record of twenty-six wins and seven losses throughout the whole season. “My goal next season is to just keep getting better,” said Borney, “and keep the state title.” 

Throughout the season, even in the state tournament, all three captains mentioned the pride their team had for balancing wrestling and academics. “We had every girl on our team get an academic award, which is pretty cool,” said Westerman. 

While their season comes to a close, girls’ wrestling is doing better than ever, and EHS can’t wait to see how they take the mats next year.