She didn’t have a ton of emotion attached to her ticket round win, but no one was asking.

Kenidi Nine advanced to her second girls wrestling state finals, this year’s as part of the IHSAA’s inaugural tournament, after winning her first two matches of the day as part of the Goshen Girls Wrestling Regional.

Nine opened her day with a pin nine seconds before time in the first period against Hobart’s Hayden Lane, advancing to the ticket round where Penn’s Isabella Reller was waiting. The Penn sophomore opened in command, and carried that into the third period, where Nine was running out of time down 7-5. But a takedown with 44 seconds left had Nine then ride out the remainder of the clock to punch her second straight ticket to the big show. Nary an outward emotion, Nine went about her business other than a quick grin at her cheering section in the stands.

Nine would wind up third after losing to Merrillville’s Christina Lawrence in the semis, and was down 6-1 to Crown Point’s Helene Papadakis with just over 20 seconds left in the third-place match, but got a reversal and worked into an immediate pin combo to score a near fall four and a 7-6 win. The Wawasee junior is 30-9 on the season.

K-Nine was unfortunately the only one of the seven Lady Warriors to advance from Goshen. Five of the seven made the ticket round, but four of those found a loss and the end of their seasons. Here’s a breakdown of how it went for Wawasee’s other six contenders including final individual records.

100 – Karlee Clevenger (21-8)

Clevenger forged into the ticket round the easy way, getting a bye into the second round. There she met Hammond Central’s Diana Hernandez and just couldn’t get any offense going. Hernandez did a great job holding Clevenger off on restarts, and Clevenger’s only points came on a reversal right at the buzzer in the second period. Otherwise it was all Hernandez in a 5-2 result, leaving Clevenger one short for the second straight season.

110 – Hadley Faurote (17-9)

Faurote was very close to advancing in her first regional, getting Ashley DeBusk of Hobart on the ground right off the jump. DeBusk, however, managed to get out of the near four hold and get back to base, and from there, it was all DeBusk. An injury timeout in the second period had Faurote needing a few minutes to collect herself, but another drop by DeBusk into a pin combo left Faurote done at 4:41.

115 – Lydia LaBarbera (17-12)

LaBarbera was just having fun in her first appearance in the regional round, smiling through a first-round win over Braelyn Prater of Triton. Once LaBarbera got a good grip on Prater, the takedown was just the elementary start of a pin at 1:24, advancing the freshman to the ticket round against Keewa Yu of Crown Point. LaBarbera led 4-3 after a period, countering an early takedown with one of her own. But Yu would finish the match on a 9-2 run before closing the pin at 5:35, switching LaBarbera’s last gasp shot with a grip and turn into a nice finish.

140 – Cyanna Leon (24-12)

Leon came into the regional as one of the four sectional champions in the bracket, and acted like one in the first round with a quick 1:36 win over Grace Christos of Wheeler. In the quarters against Penn’s Halie Horwarth, Leon came off bottom to start the second and reversed into a near four. Horwarth’s shoulder blades were down, but as the referee slid in to check for the pin, Horwarth pushed forward and reversed onto Leon, and shifted her weight down, got a quick call for a pin over Leon as the Wawasee senior looked to still be turning out of the hold. It was a disappointing finish for one of the physical leaders of the budding Wawasee girls program.

155 – Alex Garcia (14-12)

Garcia was looking to become the first girls wrestler to reach the state finals in three seasons. The Lady Warrior junior had to work against Hobart’s Bailey Varella, getting into the second period before Garcia used an impressive burst of speed to catch Varella offguard and then underneath a pin at 3:43. Finding a familiar face in the ticket round, Warsaw’s Mariana Castro awaited, and the two revisited a matchup from December that Garcia handily won. This time around, Castro used some momentum and a nice recovery on a near fall to regain control of Garcia and got the pin at 1:41 to end Garcia’s quest for a three-peat.

170 – Kenadi Pierce (14-8)

If you’re gonna lose, might as well go out against the champ. That was the theme for Pierce, who drew Warsaw’s Kaiah Long and the Warsaw brawler was on a mission. Long’s biting personality didn’t lend well to any offensive opportunities for Pierce, who bowed out to an 8-0 major decision. Long would go on to win the 170 bracket while Pierce reflects on an impressive 14-win rookie campaign.