Kennedy Wheeler had her sights on “The Eagle” since she found out she would be competing in last weekend’s Nuway Nationals wrestling championship.
The Eagle has landed in the living room of Wheeler’s Columbus home. The 6-year-old won the award after capturing her division title in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
“I’m happy with winning the Eagle,” she said. “It felt good.”
Wheeler, who will be first-grader at CSA-Lincoln Elementary, started wrestling two years ago at age 4. She became interested in the sport after watching the Big Ten Championships on television.
“We had talked about it several times,” said her father Christopher Wheeler. “She was getting to that age at 3 or 4, where she was going to decide what she was going to do athletically, if she was going to do anything athletically. We were watching the Big Ten one day, and she said, ‘Daddy, I think I want to try that,’ and she took a liking to it.”
Christopher wrestled for Columbus East, and his father Ricky Wheeler wrestled for Columbus North. Ricky was a three-time sectional and two-time regional champion and three-time semistate qualifier at North. Christopher was a conference runner-up and regional qualifier at East.
“She started off rough, being brand new,” Christopher said. “She wanted to quit, and then I made her aware that I didn’t win all of my matches when I wrestled for Columbus East.”
So Kennedy went back and finished second in her next tournament. She won the freestyle state in late April in Avon
Kennedy won several tournaments through Nuway which qualified her for the national event.
“It’s fun,” she said. “I like winning.”
At last weekend’s nationals, Kennedy competed in the 8-and-under folkstyle division. The 46- and 52-pound classes were combined.
“She was wrestling girls two and three years older and seven and eight pounds heavier,” Christopher said. “At 45 pounds, that’s a big difference.”
Kennedy, who weighed in at 44.2 pounds, also gave up several inches in height to some of her opponents.
“It was hard,” she said. “They were tall.”
Kennedy competes for Contenders Wrestling Academy out of Greenwood and the nationally-based Supreme Women of Wrestling. She trains under coaches Sean Schmaltz, Ryan Parrish, Randy Cochran and Quentin Ingram at CWA and with coaches Heather Hetzer, Robby Hetzer and USA wrestling coach Joey Torres with Supreme Women of Wrestling.
After most tournaments last year were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy and her family have traveled to West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Wisconsin to compete this year.
Kennedy trains against boys and girls three or four days a week at CWA and competes in tournaments most weekends. She said she aims to, “Work hard and never give up.”
“She has the hardest work ethic for a 6-year-old I’ve ever seen in my life,” Christopher said. “When she works out, it’s go hard until the second she leaves. She wants to wrestle against the best in practice just to get better.”
Some of the sport’s top females have taken notice of Kennedy’s recent success. Olympic wrestlers Lauren Louive and Jacarra Winchester have recognized her on their Instagram or Facebook pages.
Next on the horizon for Kennedy, she hopes, is to go to World Wrestling Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this year and compete for the “Triple Crown.”
“It’s three tournaments spread out throughout the year, and if you win all three of them, you’re basically the elite of the elite,” Christopher said.
