maddie

There’s a new state championship wrestling trophy in Henryetta after this past weekend.
HHS freshman Madison Byroads sailed up the brackets at the junior high all state wrestling tournament in Oklahoma City with three consecutive pins to take home the 133-pound honors.
In her fourth year of wrestling, the outgoing young wrestler was beaming with pride as she described how she pinned her first opponent in four minutes, 15 seconds then won the semi-finals with a pin in a minute, 37 seconds. The championship match lasted only two minutes and 24 seconds as she got a reverse then seconds later recorded the pin.
Even though she does wrestle against her male counterparts, the state championships were divided into girls and boys brackets.
That may have given the blonde freshamn a little bit of an advantage since she has battled the boys in other events.
“The guys have a lot of upper body strength and use that,” she said. “Girls use their legs more since that is the stronger part of their body.”
The practice on the mats, coupled with workouts to develop upper body strength is coupled with a lot of research as well.
“It’s a lot of being smart and realize what moves you have to do,” she explained. By that, she said she studies videos of her opponents on Youtube and other sources. “I scope them out and I’m ready for them,” Byroads said.
The win Saturday was the latest in a series of accomplishments. She was a USJOC champion as well as placing three times in the girls USGOC. She was runner up last year in the War of the Roses national girls team in Texas,
The daughter of Marla and Christopher Byroads and step daughter of Dave Hutchings is looking forward to the Class 3A regional tournament Feb. 15 and 16 when the Knights go to Marlow.