A pair of Belton wrestlers picked up where Louise Juitt left off.
The past two summers, the current Delaware State wrestler took sixth to earn All-American honors at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals.
Last week, Malena Borja and Ellie Drennon were on the medal stand at the Fargodome.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for us,” said Belton coach Greg Linhart said. “It is something that has been building little by little each year. Obviously we had Louise All-American the past two years and two years ago, Sydney (Stifter) was in the blood round and this year, Sydney was in the blood round. And this year, obviously, Malena and Ellie were both All-American in the same weight class and same division. We go right into the offseason the minute that high school state is over into freestyle. It’s big for our program and I think things are only going to get better from here.”
Borja took 5th place and Drennon placed 8th in the 16U 235-pound bracket.
“It’s a great honor and I’m appreciative to have that title of All-American and be able to bring it back to my school,” Borja said.
Borja reached the semifinals but lost there against eventual national champion Taya Maumausolo from California by a pin.
A 4-2 decision went in favor of Anastasia Crum from Illinois in the next round, which bumped Borja to the fifth-place match. She posted a pin in 1:57 against North Dakota’s Jacey Peterson in that match.
Borja won all three of her matches by pin, each in less than 2 minutes.
“I went in with the mindset that I was going to win; I kept telling myself, I was going to win,” she said. “I didn’t even really think about losing. I thought I could do it and then I went out and did it. I really didn’t analyze my opponents or I didn’t really look at that stuff.”
She said she went in with that mindset thanks to Linhart, who kept on telling her she would do well.
Earlier this summer, she placed at the USA Wrestling Folkstyle Nationals and also attended the Women’s National Duals.
She posted a 5-3 mark in freestyle and went 5-1 in Greco-Roman.
This was the first summer she’s ever done offseason tournaments for wrestling. The motivation? Her advancing to the MSHSAA Class 2 finals earlier this year.
She won her first match and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Borja lost the next two, but that came against quality wrestlers. Jeralyn Spear of Troy Buchanan beat her in the quarterfinals and finished third. Hali Windes of Fort Osage beat Borja in the consolation bracket and took third, falling to Spear.
Borja has only been wrestling since her eighth-grade season and that first year was mostly against heavyweight boys.
She said that experience taught her how important technique is in wrestling.
That, coupled with a renewed mindset, has improved her performance, she said.
“When I was a freshman, I had the mindset that yeah, I wrestle, but I’m not that good and just didn’t have that confidence in myself yet,” she said. “I would get my headspace right and just take deep breaths and then I think ‘I’m going to do this.’ This offseason has really helped me grow in wrestling.”
Drennon, at many of the state tournaments this season, would battle Borja. While she didn’t have the success in those matches, that experience helped improve her wrestling.
She won her first match at Fargo — in her first trip — with a pin in 20 seconds over Rome Robinson from Florida.
She lost in the quarterfinals to Maycee Hales of Utah, the runner-up in the event. Drennon, like Borja, lost to Crum as well.
“It is extremely cool,” Drennon said of being All-American. “I started wrestling freshman year. I realized I was actually pretty good at it. I feel I deserve to be here and I became an All-American and I’m so happy. It was really something to be at. Even if I wasn’t going to be an All-American, I wanted to be there and try my best.”
