LEWIS CENTER — Emma Rinehart laid on her back Sunday, on the cold marble floor of a back hallway connected to the gym at Olentangy Orange High School, and she breathed like she’d just survived a chasing lion.
Her stomach heaved in and out as she gasped for air. Her arms lay sprawled out on the floor behind her, the product of sheer exhaustion. Her eyes remained shut as her coaches provided feedback on her most recent match.
The Mount Vernon junior had just defeated Westerville North freshman Arden Heckman, 6-2, in the regional quarterfinals. It was a grueling match – Rinehart was battling a lingering illness and Heckman did not go down without a fight – but she got the job done, using a takedown and sound defense to pull away late.
It didn’t used to be this way. Rinehart, Mount Vernon’s lone female wrestler and the first in school history to compete in and place at a state tournament, faced less resistance in previous postseason runs. She pinned both of her regional opponents her freshman year and all four of her regional opponents last year.
But times are changing. Girls wrestling has grown rapidly in Ohio over the last half-decade – so much so that the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted last year to sanction the sport – and more participation means more competition.
Rinehart, who placed third in the 115-pound weight class at the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association’s Girls State Tournament last season, is up against a more crowded field this time around.
“From my freshman year, it’s up a hundred notches. From last year, it’s up a hundred notches. …” Rinehart said Sunday of the level of competition. “It’s kind of crazy how it’s gotten so hard, so quick.”
Rinehart knows what she’s up against. But she also knows herself – the work she’s put in and the strides she’s made.
And she isn’t planning on giving an inch.
“She’s a fighter,” Mount Vernon assistant coach Tyler Bevington said.
Rinehart proved it once again on Sunday. Battling sickness and increased competition, the Mount Vernon junior persevered to win her third straight regional championship, rattling off four straight victories to retake her place atop the podium.
She will wrestle this weekend in the OHSAA’s first girls state wrestling tournament, held at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus (the OHSWCA state event had been held at Hilliard Davidson High School).
Her goal is to become Knox County’s first state wrestling champion.
“I am literally on cloud nine right now. I’m so happy. But obviously, I’m not content with it. I feel like now I’m coming for a title,” Rinehart said Sunday night. “I don’t know, I’m just so excited. I’m excited to wrestle at The Schott for the first time with the boys.”
Rinehart was one of seven Knox County wrestlers to qualify for state this past weekend. Three of her Mount Vernon teammates – junior Brock Blankenhorn (106), sophomore Jake Taylor (150) and freshman Alex Taylor (215) – qualified for the Division I boys tournament, while Centerburg sophomore Christopher Marshall (126), junior Caylan LeMaster (157) and East Knox sophomore Blake Elliott (190) qualified for the Division III boys tournament.
Wrestling will begin Friday and conclude Sunday in Columbus. Click here for more information on how to attend.
BUILDING MOMENTUM: Rinehart’s junior campaign didn’t start off as planned.
She suffered a concussion on opening weekend at the John Brown Memorial Tournament, then struggled to regain momentum, experiencing what she described as “setback after setback after setback” while wrestling at 120 pounds.
It was after her seventh-place finish at the Mechanicsburg Heart of Ohio Invite on Jan. 15 that Rinehart and the coaching staff decided to make a change.
“I was messing around with my weight because I didn’t really want to cut to 115. …” Rinehart recalled. “I went to 120 and I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’”
Over the next several weeks, Rinehart worked her way down to 115 pounds, the weight class she competed in a year ago. Mount Vernon’s coaching staff also changed the way she practiced during that time, Bevington said, in an effort to maximize her time in the wrestling room.
“She did have a rough start to the season, probably the first half. And we have a great coaching staff, and we got together and kind of formulated a little bit of a plan to get her back on track,” Bevington said.
“She has fantastic drill partners – three or four kids at least that she goes with daily that have really pushed her and gotten her back on track – so that has helped her a lot. And that’s (one of the) things we talked about when she was struggling was, ‘Hey, in the room, maybe we need to change a few things to get you drilling better, so we can see the results.’”
Rinehart began to see results as February rolled around. She placed second at the Mrs. K Memorial Tournament in Toledo on Feb. 4, then went on a tear, rattling off tournament victories at Port Clinton on Feb. 12 and Delaware Hayes on Feb. 18 to roll into the postseason with momentum.
It carried over to her performance Sunday.
Rinehart started the day with a dominant showing, pinning Lexington sophomore Kyler Lamb 30 seconds into the second period of their first-round bout. After grinding out a win over Heckman in the quarterfinals, the Mount Vernon junior pulled through again in the semis, pinning Olentangy Orange junior Josie Nickoloff with 36 seconds left in the third period to advance to the championship match.
“She had cut some weight and didn’t feel the best – she was fighting a little bit of a cold this week – so I knew the chance was there, for the first couple of matches at least, to maybe not wrestle her best, (but then she could) get rehydrated and get some food (during the break before the semifinals),” Bevington said.
“I wasn’t super surprised at the first couple matches. She still wrestled pretty decently, it just wasn’t her ‘A’ performance. And then it kind of got better as the day went on. …She wrestled just completely differently after a few hours of getting some fuel in the body. It was awesome to see.”
SENDING A MESSAGE: Rinehart was ranked 11th in the state in the final American Women’s Wrestling poll (published Feb. 9). Nickoloff was ranked fifth. And Central Crossing junior Addison Rudolph, whom Rinehart would face in the championship match Sunday, was ranked second.
Rinehart said she knew going into the match that she’d need to wrestle her best to win.
“The last time I wrestled her, she pinned me in either the first or second period,” Rinehart recalled. “And so I was like, ‘This is gonna be tough.’ But I was also like, ‘I got this. I’m going to win.’”
Rinehart fell behind early, as Rudolph scored on a reversal with 30 seconds left in the first period, but the Yellow Jacket found her footing shortly thereafter. She took down Rudolph with 55 seconds left in the second period, then scored again on a near fall, coming inches away from pinning Rudolph near the edge of the mat.
Rinehart took a 5-2 lead into the third period.
Rudolph scored early in the final stanza, taking Rinehart down to make it 5-4 with 1:12 left. But Rinehart responded, using an escape and a quick takedown to stretch the lead to 8-4 with 25 seconds remaining. She never let Rudolph off the mat, using her strength and will power to control the rest of the match and walk away with a 4-point victory.
“We talked about, after watching Addi wrestle today, that she had been coming out in her matches and really pushing the pace and pushing the other person – controlling the ties and kind of pushing that person off the mat a lot. So we needed to control the ties and control the match and not let her do that, and feel that she was getting an upper hand. And Emma really controlled the match well,” Bevington said.
“There were very few, if any, times where Addi kind of controlled the flow of the match. Even the time where Addie got the takedown, it was off of an error by Emma, where she had a better position and just kind of snapped her down into her leg and we gave up the takedown. But really, for most of the match, Emma kind of controlled it and was using the Russian 2-on-1 tie that kind of negated a lot of Addi’s stuff.”
Rinehart called her 11th-place state ranking “disappointing.” She came into Sunday with something to prove, and it showed in her final match.
“I went in, was aggressive and got the job done. …” Rinehart said. “I just knew (Rudolph) was gonna come out guns-a-blazing, so I knew that I kind of had to match that and be aggressive. I knew that I needed to control the pace of the match and stay calm.”
Rinehart walked away Sunday with a cut under her eye and a bruise across her chin. She also walked away with a title. Bevington said he was proud of the way she finished the deal.
“She just gutted it out with her performance in the finals,” Bevington said. “She got a sweet, nasty bruise on her chin – it looks all purple and stuff – so it was just a really gutsy performance.”
MOVING FORWARD: Rinehart will serve as Knox County’s lone representative in the OHSAA’s inaugural girls state tournament.
Fredericktown, which launched its girls program this year, sent two wrestlers to regionals Sunday, but neither made it through.
Junior Cammy McKinley placed fifth in the 135-pound weight class, finishing the tournament with a 4-2 record and earning the right to serve as a state alternate. Sophomore Lilly Rose went 0-2 in her first postseason appearance.
Friday will mark Rinehart’s wrestling debut at the Schottenstein Center. And while the junior expects to be nervous, she believes some of those nerves will be calmed due to the experience she had at the boys state tournament last year.
“Last year, I got to go down for weigh-ins with (Blankenhorn) and the boys that qualified. And so I actually got to go through the tunnel and be on the floor before they did weigh-ins, which was so awesome,” Rinehart said.
“And even now, even though I’ve gotten to experience it, I know that it’s gonna be crazy and I’ll probably get goosebumps and stuff. But at least I’ve gotten to see it. It’s surreal.”
Rinehart will head to Columbus on Friday with high expectations. After finishing third at state last year, and 1-2 the year before, the junior is looking to climb the ladder once again this season.
“As far as goals, I think that it’s always been to get back to the podium. I think that her goal is to beat what she did last year. …” Bevington said. “But we are also realistic. We know that she was struggling a little bit earlier this year. Obviously, she’s wrestling really well right now.”
Rinehart has won three straight tournaments and 19 out of her last 20 matches. She’ll look to keep this momentum going into Friday.
The key, Rinehart said, will be to take things one match at a time.
“I just need to stay focused, because my goal is really big. I’d be happy to make the finals, but to win the whole thing would just be awesome. So I think I just need to stay calm,” Rinehart said.
“I know that it’s gonna be tough – there’s gonna be hard girls – and I just need to focus on what’s in front of me.”
