| My love of wrestling actually can be attributed to football. I have always been an active kid. I started with gymnastics at the age of 5 and quickly made the competition team. After a long break due to a chronic illness, I decided I really wanted to play football because it was a contact sport. I loved playing football, and my first year my team went 8-0. Well next year comes around and I wanted to play it again, but my parents wouldn’t let me because I was so much tinier than everyone else. My Parents were both high school wrestlers, and they told me I could give wrestling a try, since I would be wrestling people who were my size. |
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| I started to wrestle in 2017, when I was 9. I instantly fell in love with this amazing sport. I have always wrestled in the boys/open division, up until this year, where I wrestled a mixture of the girls and open bracket. There were not really enough girls for me to wrestle, especially in my wrestling club, The Carson Bulldogs, so I often gave up 14lbs a season to be able to wrestle in the open division. In 6th grade I started wrestling for my middle school’s wrestling team. My goal was to take 1st in the Tah Neva Championships, but that season was cut short because of Covid. This year I have dedicated myself to this sport that I am in love with. Wrestling for my middle school team after school, I would then head to Carson City (45 minutes away) to do another practice for league with my team The Carson Bulldogs. Once league wrestling was over, I was fortunate enough to be invited to practice with Coach Klapp and Khutulun Wrestling Club in Reno, over an hour drive each way. Wrestling has taught me to never give up, work hard and persevere. |
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| I would not be here if it wasn’t for all of my coaches. Thank you, Coach Kavanagh (my dad), Coach Travis Lamborn and Coach Brandon Lamborn from Carson Bulldogs, Coach Ben Johnson from Pa-wa-lu middle school wrestling team (can’t wait to wrestle more with you Coach!!), and Coach Klapp from Reed wrestling who I will be hopefully wrestling for, for a long while. My family has also been such a huge support group, giving up all their free time to travel to tournaments! |
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| This year is my 8th grade year, the first year back since Covid. I worked as hard as I could to achieve this goal of Tah-Neva Champion, and finally my hard work paid off, and I placed 1st at the Tah-Neva Championships, despite a shoulder injury I suffered a few days before–turns out I actually broke my shoulder. I knew it was bad from the amount of pain I was in, but I was so determined to reach my goal that I did not tell my parents how bad it really was, until after my season was over two weeks later. I am so excited to be able to wrestle with the All-Girls Khutulun club, the moment I stepped into the gym I felt welcomed. The sport of girls wrestling has come so far since I started, and I am lucky to be a part if its future. |
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| I am a 4x National Placer earning a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place medal. At the Nevada State Championships, I placed 3 out of the 4 times that I have gone to State. This year I took 2nd place. In 2019 I took 1st, and in 2018 I took 3rd. This year I placed 2nd at the SWA/ENWA Folkstyle Championships. I placed 1st at Tah-Neva Qualifiers and 1st at Tah-Neva Championships. |
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| I am beyond excited to start my high school wrestling career this fall! My goals in the next few years are to win National titles, win the Nevada State girls Championships, make the trip to wrestle at Fargo, make Team USA and ultimately wrestle at the collegiate level for Iowa. |
” If I had 14 Ella Kavanaghs, we would win the state tournament”
It is evident in the way she carries herself and the way she led our team as Captain, that she has a clear understanding of the pathway to reach her goals as an elite wrestler. As a Coach I can only hope to give her the tools to run with.- Coach Ben Johnson. |
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