Comanche girls making impact

Comanche’s young girls wrestling team may lack in experience, but not in heart.

The Lady Indians, with the exception of one wrestler, are all in junior high. Sophomore Hannah Koen is the lone high school girl.

This past weekend, the girls competed at the Beast of Broken Arrow tournament with three girls coming away on the medal stand.

Koen won her weight class. It was the second tournament this year in which she has won. She also has two runner-up finishes.

Bentley Sharp was a junior high champ and won Outstanding Wrestler for the upper weight classes, and Katelyn Cole won third her weight class in junior high.

“We had a lot of new girls when we started out, like girls that had never wrestled before,” said coach Dilynn Hare. “We’ve got some of those girls going in and winning some matches and scoring points. They’re doing pretty well.”

The junior high girls will be participating in the junior high state tournament this weekend. Koen still must wrestle regionals and qualify for state.

“(Hannah’s) done pretty well this season and has seen a lot of the competition she will be seeing at state, so it’s looking good for her,” Hare said.

Bentley Sharp, Cheyenne Garcia, Kylie Willer and Tesla Richmond will be wrestling at junior high state.

Some of the Lady Indians have not received much time on the mat due to injuries, some at the beginning of the season and other later in the season. Brook West, a regular placer at tournaments for Comanche, will miss the state tournament due to an injury. Garcia was injured earlier in the season, but is going to participate this weekend.

It’s a learning experience for Hare, too, but it’s not like she hasn’t been around the sport. Her husband, Keith, is a Comanche wrestling coach and both her sons wrestled. When Keith could not be at their sons’ competitions growing up, she filled in as coach.

“I pick (Keith’s) brain every night,” Hare said.