It was just seven years ago when the Grain Valley wrestling team had its first girls wrestler.
At the time, three-time state champion Sevreign Aumua was the only girl on the team and had to practice against the boys.
Since then the girls team has grown a lot, and going into the 2025-26 season, the Eagles will have the most on the team in the history of the program with 14.
“Have 14 girls which is pretty good,” Grain Valley coach Donald Horner said. “We have grown just a hair every year and we would love to see it keep growing. We would love to have 40 girls on this team.”
The girls team will be led by its only senior, Jayden Moehle, who is working to move down a weight class. She is a three-time all-state medalist and finished as a runner up the past two seasons at the state meet in the 235-pound weight class.
She has been working on eating healthier and bumping up her exercise in an attempt to move down to the 190-pound weight class. So far, she has lost a lot of weight and is close to reaching her goal of 190 pounds.
“It’s about staying disciplined,” Moehle said. “Coach Horner has shown me how to eat right and exercise and get on weight programs. I have been changing my habits and have been eating low carb and high protein foods.
“I was big on weight lifting during the summer time. Ever since wrestling practices have started I have been working on a lot of cardio.”
Horner praised Moehle for the amount of progress she has made in cutting weight and it has helped with her wrestling.
“She’s losing weight the right way and she’s really healthy,” Horner said. She’s moving really quick. We haven’t seen her move this quickly since she was a freshman or a sophomore.”
Because of the weight loss, Moehle has been working on adding more moves to her arsenal.
“I have been hitting things a lot differently,” the senior said. “I have been trying to change my strategy a little bit because a lot of the time, I would hit my outside sweep and that was my go-to move and I didn’t change anything.
“I really changed up my tactics. I have been working on double legs and head outside singles.”
The Eagles will have some returners from last year’s lineup including juniors Lucy Dampf, Cecilia Del Real, McKenna Lane and sophomore Ellerae Hay.
They also have an incoming transfer in junior Tairyun Blocker, who wrestled in Cherryvale, Kan., last season and qualified for the Kansas state tournament. Horner said freshmen Brooklyn Koepkey, Adalynn Burch and Hadleigh Scott are some names that could make an immediate impact this season.
“I believe we all have a chance to make some noise this year, especially some of the incoming freshmen,” Del Real said.
Boys
On the boys side, the Grain Valley wrestling team returns multiple wrestlers who competed at the varsity level last season.
The boys are led by senior Zac Bleess, who is a two-time state medalist and three-time qualifier. Last season, he fell short of a state medal for the first time but he’s looking to come back and finish strong for his last high school season.
“The focus in the offseason has been freestyle and working on my feet because there is not a lot of transition from top and bottom,” Bleess said. “On my feet, I have been working on fine tuning my dump series and I have been watching lots and lots of film.
“We all want to be state champions. Every single day I want something extra to do. I want to show my training and preparation is working. Whether I win or lose, if I wrestled the best I could, that is a win in my book.”
Horner gave Bleess high praise and expects him to make some noise in 2025-26.
“He is one of the best wrestlers in the state in my opinion, and he can make a push to make the state championship,” Horner said of Bleess. “He’s a great leader and he works with our younger kids.”
Bleess said he will likely bump up to the 138- or 144-pound weight class after wrestling at 132 last season.
I have been wrestling at 138 and 144 all summer, so I have gotten used to it,” Bleess said. “I think the biggest adjustment is not having to cut as much. Being able to bump and being able to just focus on wrestling is going to be a big thing for me.”
Senior Tyler Jones also is a returning state qualifier, who will be coming back to wrestle for the Eagles. He qualified for the state tournament for the first time last season and finished with a 27-15 record.
He is a wrestler who is strong on his feet and has utilized a double-leg takedown to score a lot of his points. His goal is to earn a state medal in his final high school season.
“I have been working on my neutral game while wrestling freestyle,” Jones said. “I feel like I can match anyone in the state on my feet. The main thing for me is improving on bottom. If I can get better at getting up from the bottom, I can beat anyone.
“I want to place at state and impose my will on my opponents. I want to show the world I can do it.”
Other returning from last year’s varsity lineup are junior Sjoeren Aumua, who was a state qualifier as a freshman; junior Brody Braa, sophomores Grant Burd, Dalton Burch, Brodie Davis, Brady Jones, Kobe Hughes and Kaeler Byrd; and seniors Alec Fenstermaker and Justin King, a returning state qualifier.
Grain Valley also added Kansas City Northeast transfer Maui Sua, who finished fifth in the Class 3 heavyweight division last season.
There also will likely be some new faces in the lineup to replace the three seniors that graduated in 2025.
“It’s different,” Bleess said of the team overall. “There are going to be a lot of new faces in the lineup. I think if we grow and develop, we will be where we need to be at the end of the season. It’s just going to be a very new team. Almost everyone in the room has experience with wrestling.”
