The atmosphere at the FARGODOME was nerve wracking for Holt graduate Cassidy Benwell.
She was preparing for her championship match with Zao Estrada of Hilton Head, S.C. in the 115-pound junior division of the U.S. Marine Corps Junior & 16U Nationals tournament on July 14 in Fargo, N.D.
The Holt grad didn’t have anyone there to help calm her nerves. It was just her and Estrada standing side by side waiting for their names to be called and for the curtain in front of them to be pulled up.
Once it did, Benwell went down a flight of stairs and one thing was going through her mind.
“I was thinking, ‘Don’t fall! Don’t fall!’” Benwell exclaimed.
She didn’t but she said the nerves got the best of her as she fell in 11-0 in a tech fall loss to Estrada as she took second place. However, that doesn’t take away the fact that she had her best performance at Fargo Nationals, earning her first All-American honor of her career in one of the toughest high school wrestling tournaments in the United States.
“I was nervous being on stage and being the center of attention,” Benwell said. “It was scary. I felt like I could have wrestled better if I could have blocked out everything around me.”
Holt head wrestling coach Maxwell Newbury echoed those sentiments.
“Once you get downstairs, the arena is super backed and it’s really bright down there. It’s really loud,” Newbury said. “For Cassidy, it helps her to be able to talk to someone before the match to help her get zoned in. The logistics of it made it hard for her to focus.”
Although she didn’t win the National Championship, she still had a strong performance. She was the No. 7 seed in her bracket. She won her first two matches by tech fall before she took down Emma Engels of Illinois by a 9-2 decision in the round of 32.
She then took a 9-0 decision against Angela Bianchi of Wisconsin in the round of 16 before she had her first stiff challenge in the quarterfinals against Gabriella Gomez of Illinois. She trailed 3-1 after the first three minutes before scoring four unanswered points in the second period to win 5-3.
“I was confident,” Benwell said of her quarterfinals match. I talked to my dad beforehand and he helped keep me focused. I just knew I needed to stay in good position and use my hand fighting ability to win. My opponent was very technical and was a very good wrestler.”
She then punched her ticket to the finals after she overcame a 6-0 deficit to Leiannah Landreth of Kansas to win 15-6.
“I remember getting up after she shot me out,” Benwell recalled. “All of a sudden, I started calming down and I started thinking that it’s my match. No one is going to make this happen except for me. I was able to score off what she was doing. She got her first points off a low single leg takedown. I stayed in good position and her mindset was better after that.”
Her mindset was the reason she was able to make the finals and earn All-American honors for the first time. When she went to the same tournament as a freshman, she said her nerves got the best of her. As a sophomore, she had a knee injury during the event and as a junior, she was battling an illness.
This time around, everything went much better for Benwell at Fargo Nationals than in year’s past.
“This year I focused more on scoring points,” she said. “This year, I was really good with my head and hand defense. I am mainly a hand fighter when it comes to neutral. I just like to stay in good position, so when something pops up, I will go for it.”
For Newbury, he came away impressed with Benwell, whom he has coached for three years.
“That was the best I have ever seen her wrestle,” Newbury said. “She has definitely come a long way and has really progressed. I feel like Cassidy was capable of accomplishing big things. She’s been capable of beating the top girls in the country. She had a good mindset throughout the tournament.”
Now, Benwell will turn her attention to wrestle for Lindenwood University this winter. She said she is unsure if she will red shirt her freshman season or crack the lineup right away.
This summer, she has been training with Caitlyn Thorne, a senior for Lindenwood. The time Benwell has spent with Thorne has been beneficial as she prepares to face college-level wrestlers. Her goals are to become an NCAA Division I All-American and to make the Women’s Olympic Team as a senior.
“She has been like a mentor to me,” Benwell said of Thorne. “She is very technical and she has been helping me with the little things that I don’t think about in high school. I am excited to be her teammate.”