The 2025 graduate made one more trip to Fargo, North Dakota, and came back to be the first FHN female wrestler to earn All-American honors. She took eighth place in the junior girls’ freestyle 105-pound bracket.
She is the school’s second-ever Fargo All-American, joining Wyatt Dannegger, who accomplished that feat in 2024.
The Grand View University signee didn’t place her first time in Fargo but brought home hardware earlier this month.
“I felt a lot better, more confident, for sure, because I feel like freestyle is a lot different,” she said. “Obviously it’s still wrestling, but I definitely worked a lot on just my freestyle moves, like the crotch lifts, the laces, the guts, just getting better at that stuff.”
She opened her tournament with a bye, followed by a 10-0 tech fall against Nola Allen from New Jersey. A pin in 2:10 against Gabriell Geinett from New York followed, with Apple leading 8-0 at the time of the fall.
There, Apple lost by a 12-2 tech fall against Katie Biscoglia from Iowa.
She won two on the backside to secure her All-American placement.
Locked into a close match, she picked up a pin at the 4:02 mark against Chloe Obuhanych from Hawaii. Apple led a slim 7-6 lead at the time of the win.
She posted a 12-2 tech fall in less than 2 minutes against Kyrstan Perez from Oklahoma in the blood-round match.
However, Apple said that wasn’t the biggest win of the tournament — it was the match against Obuhanych.
“She beat me at Super 32 previously, so that felt like a big win for me,” Apple said. “That almost felt better than winning my blood round match. I was like, ‘Ok, this girl has beat me before.’ I knew it would be a tough match and I was able to pull through with a win. It was a really exciting match too.”
Apple said the win helped provide a boost of confidence going into the blood round.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to lose that match because I just came off avenging a loss and I felt good with my wrestling,” Apple said. “I knew as soon as I stepped out for the match, I was becoming an All-American. I just had the confidence that helped.”
Her run at Fargo ended with losses by pins against Eva Zimmerman from Utah and Kiera Partello from Florida in the seventh-place match.
“I feel like I’m creating some sort of legacy,” Apple said. “I was the first girl to place at state for our school and this past year, I wanted to be the first girls’ state champion, but I didn’t achieve that. So I’m glad I could be the first All-American for the girls at our school.”
Apple made the state finals the past two years for the Lady Knights.
She went 46-2 this year and lost in the finals to Liberty’s Sandy Breeden. Her junior year, Apple was 41-4 but lost to Fort Osage’s Aroma Marrufo in the finals.
Her first all-state medal came in her sophomore year, going 30-9 and taking sixth place at 110 in Class 2.
She posted a 27-4 record as a freshman in 2022 but came up short in the districts.
Apple said her high school career didn’t end like she wanted, but it will motivate her as she heads to Des Moines to wrestle for the NAIA school.
Looking back, Apple said it is a little crazy that she will be wrestling in college.
She played soccer most of her life and wrestling just kind of became a thing to do to stay in shape between spring soccer and fall soccer.
Her first plan was to play basketball and she made the JV team her freshman year.
Her health teacher, Chris Brown, was also the wrestling coach. He and wrestler Aaron Lashley continued to recruit her, in part because her older brother, Mason, wrestled.
He reminded her of the family tradition and how her height, or lack thereof, could be a hindrance in basketball.
“They were like ‘you’re too short for basketball,” she said. “Thank goodness that they were on me so hard to come out and wrestle because my life would look a lot different right now.”
She continued to play soccer into her junior year but then switched into focus to wrestling.
It wasn’t until the start of her senior year that she knew she wanted to wrestle in college.
She said her desire to wrestle outweighed her love for soccer.
“I doubted myself a lot and I didn’t think I would be good enough for college (wrestling),” Apple said. “Whenever more (college) coaches started reaching out, it did give me more confidence and lessened the doubt about myself.”
She met future teammates in her time at Fargo and the Vikings’ coaches were there scouting future wrestlers.
Apple expects to wrestle at either 103 or 110. She moves to Iowa on August 22 and then turns her focus to wrestling and education — she plans to major in nursing.
She joins a Viking roster that features a few Missouri wrestlers during the 2024-25 season who were underclassmen: Kali Butts (Sedalia Smith-Cotton); Julia Donnelly (Washington); Brooke-Lynn Rush (St. Joseph Benton); Audrey Scherer (Lindbergh) and Ashlan Thompson (Willard).
A sidenote there is that Donnelly beat Apple in the consolation semifinals in 2022, which meant Apple wrestled for fifth and Donnelly wrestled for third.
“I wanted to go somewhere with practice partners that would challenge me and make me better,” Apple said.
