Wawasee’s Kenidi Nine stands on the second place level of the podium at the Sarah Hildebrandt Invite at Penn. To Nine’s right is Sarah Hildebrandt, and to her left are Homestead’s Katy Vardaman and NorthWood’s Naima Ghaffar. (Photo provided by Miguel Rodriguez)

Well known in these parts is the legend of Sarah Hildebrandt, the Penn grad who went on to win Olympic wrestling gold in Paris this past summer. The tournament in her name, the Sarah Hildebrandt Invite, brings in hundreds of girls wrestlers together to Hildebrandt’s alma mater to find out who’s who in girls wrestling.

Wawasee was part of that 44-team monster on Saturday, giving it a go with 14 of its athletes on card in competition.

The Lady Warriors moved up 17 spots from a year ago to go from 22nd in 2023 to fifth in 2024. Mooresville was the champion with 213, Wawasee fifth at 95, edging out East Noble by two points for a its first top-five finish at the huge invitational.

Leading the way for the Lady Warriors was Kenidi Nine at 135, going 3-0 in her bracket, including a 13-9 decision over Warsaw’s Natalie Davis in the bracket final. Nine then advanced to the 135 overall championship, where she ran into Homestead’s Katy Vardaman. The state runner-up at 135 year ago, Vardaman got the fall over Nine at 1:00 to claim the class honors, leaving Nine as runner-up at the Hildebrandt.

Two other Wawasee competitors finished fourth overall in their brackets.

Sylvia Dixon worked through the winners bracket to face Alexis Spaulding of Columbia City in the bracket final. Spaulding, who was a podium finisher at state a year ago, rolled up a pin on Dixon in the first period to move onto the 120 final that she would win by tech fall, while Dixon fell to the consolation final. There, Alexia Utley of Portage finally solved Dixon with a pin midway through the third period.

At 125, Katie Sigsbee went 1-1 in the bracket, forcing her to work through three more matches to get to the consolation final, which she once again met Warsaw’s Emma DeWald. After DeWald knocked Sigsbee out of the winners trail with an 8-1 decision, DeWald again had Sigsbee’s number in a second period pin in the third-place match.

Karlee Clevenger at 100, Lydia LaBarbera at 115 and Cyanna Leon at 140 were all 2-2 overall with six pins between them, and both Naviya Leon and Alex Garcia earned a win at 145 and 170, respectively.

Wawasee also had nine wins from its JV wrestlers in action, Aaliyah James leading the way with a 3-0 run with three pins at 113.9-120.

Sarah Hildrbrandt Invitational
at Penn High School

1. Mooresville 213
2. Merrillville 177
3. Penn 167
4. Warsaw 115
5. Wawasee 95
6. East Noble 93
7. Columbia City 87
8. Rensselaer Central 83.5
9. Homestead 67
10. Rochester 64.5

Wawasee Wrestlers
Varsity
100 – Karlee Clevenger 2-2
115 – Lydia LaBarbera 2-2
120 – Sylvia Dixon 2-2, 4th
125 – Katie Sigsbee 4-2, 4th
135 – Kenidi Nine 3-1, 2nd
140 – Cyanna Leon 2-2
145 – Naviya Leon 1-2
170 – Alex Garcia 1-2
Junior Varsity
Hadley Faroute 2-1
Aaliyah James 3-0
Evelyn Tinkey 2-1
Evalyn Blanco 2-1
Peyton Hohman 0-3
Isabelle Brown 0-3